Coming Full Circle
by Terpischore the Whirler
Summary: Kagome returns home after the final battle with Naraku, but her return to fuedal Japan five years later teaches her that the end is merely a glimpse into the beginning.
1. Default Chapter

Coming Full Circle  
  
* Just thought I'd give fanfiction another shot. Usually I'm not a big fan of songfics, but this song really seemed to fit the situation of these characters. As a note, I do not own any of the Inuyasha characters (they are from a mind much more brilliant than mine) and will make no profit from this story. The song, Goodbye, is borrowed from Plankeye, an absolutely fabulous band.  
  
The quest had ended. The tides of change were coming and they all could feel it from their insides, from the center of their bones. Naraku had been slain by Inuyasha's hands, and the stain that had been the evil creature was now wiped away from feudal Japan. They all returned to Kaede's village, ready to rest and recover from the injuries they all had sustained in the final battle.  
  
Miroku had several broken ribs and it was discovered by Kaede that he had been bleeding internally. He lay on a mat in Kaede's hut, Sango keeping vigil at his side. She refused to leave for any reason. She had a broken arm and plenty of blue and purple bruises covering her body, but she remained like a sentinel refusing to leave her post.  
  
On the fourth day Miroku opened his eyes, "Sango." She leaned over to hear him speak. His eyes were heavy and were only slits as he struggled to keep consciousness, "I felt your strength while I slept. You stayed by me."  
  
"I could not leave you," Sango whispered.  
  
"Bear my children." Sango moved away from him and frowned. Typical for Miroku to joke as tension and pain hung in the air. "No, Sango. Be my bride and bear my children."  
  
Sango did not answer, but her hand moved to Miroku's shoulder and rested there softly. Her mouth shifted upwards into a velvety smile. This was enough assurance for Miroku to shut his eyes and let sleep drift back into his body. They both could feel the change enveloping them, and they both held their arms open wide ready to embrace it.  
  
* * *  
  
Kagome had been lucky; her life had almost been stolen during the battle. She had lived and managed to have the strength to fuse and purify the Shikon no Tama. During the battle, her miko powers had fully manifested themselves. It had been the necessity of the situation, but in that moment she could feel the state of her body shift and it was as if everything within her made sense. Her fingertips tingled with her uncovered power, and in the end she played as much of a role in the death of Naraku as Inuyasha, but not before Naraku came close to taking her life.  
  
She stayed in the village until her wounds had begun to heal, but all the while she could feel the change and the tide pulling her back to her own era. Her time in feudal Japan was ending; her time with Inuyasha was ending and along with this realization a sense of bitterness and relief filled her soul. Kagome had stayed with Kaede for two weeks when she resolved to go home. Her wounds had done most of their healing and there was really nothing keeping her from returning to her mother, brother, and grandfather. Nothing but the emotional ties she had to her friends of this time, but even those were not enough to stem back the tide.  
  
That night she pulled the Shikon no Tama from her backpack and snuck out of the hut. She knew where she could find Inuyasha. He sat on the branch of a tree in the village, looking out in the night while his white hair shown in the moonlight.  
  
"Kagome, shouldn't you be sleeping?" Kagome knew she would never be able to sneak up on Inuyasha; his ears and nose could pick up on her movements and smell from a mile away.  
  
"Inuyasha, I . . ."  
  
"You're leaving aren't you?" He did not bother to turn around and look her in the eye.  
  
"Yeah. It's time. Will you walk me to the well?"  
  
It's difficult to say goodbye after only one life.  
  
"Why didn't you tell me?"  
  
"I didn't know how, Inuyasha."  
  
"Did you say goodbye to everyone?" He turned and jumped out of the tree.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Inuyasha stared down at her for a moment, "Well, then let's go." The walk was long and tense, and not a word was whispered between the two.  
  
Inuyasha slowed his steps down once the Bone Eater's Well came into sight, "We're here."  
  
"Thank you." Kagome could feel the tears rising up within her, and her lungs did not seem to be working quite they was they were supposed to.  
  
"Are you coming back?"  
  
Kagome could not bring herself to answer. She grabbed Inuyasha's palms, opened them, and then placed the Shikon no Tama inside of them. She closed his hands around the jewel and squeezed them, hoping to pass some warmth to him. His hands had slain countless demons, but the same hands had rescued her many times and always were gentle with her.  
  
Inuyasha frowned, "You won't be able to come back."  
  
"I know."  
  
"Kagome." Inuyasha stepped closer. "Just stay until you're healed."  
  
"It's time for me to go. Can't you feel it?" Inuyasha stared, but did not say a word. "I'm being tugged back into my own world. I've finished what I've come to do, and now it's time for me to leave. Everyday I stay the pull just gets stronger and stronger. Think about it Inuyasha. Why hasn't Kikyo come back to her village to be with you yet? You two can't be together until I'm gone."  
  
"You're an idiot." Inuyasha's face was undecipherable.  
  
"Inuyasha, both your souls are bound together, and I can't compete with the dead."  
  
"Wench, it's not like that."  
  
"The whole time I was here, I wanted you're heart in the same way you had mine." The tears began to fall. "But, I know that you're heart wasn't yours to give away, and it'd be unfair of me to ask you for it."  
  
The rain will fall down, replenishing all of our broken dreams and this burning tree that's withering will bloom again.  
  
"Thank you for all you have given me." Kagome cried.  
  
Goodye, goodbye walk away it's time to say goodbye. Goodbye, goodbye, walk away it's time to say goodbye.  
  
Inuyasha's stared, his eyes an amber glare into her, "Kagome, do you remember how you protected me? Do you know that you put peace into my heart? I should be the one thanking you."  
  
"I almost wish we could go back and start it all over again."  
  
He smiled, "All the troubles we've been through and you'd do it a second time?"  
  
"I don't regret a second of it. I do it all again in a heartbeat, but we can't go back."  
  
Now all that's left, pictures on the walls memories an stories that are told. The more often told the bigger they get Create a legacy lest we forget.  
  
No, we can't, but we can always remember, Kagome. You will remember won't you?"  
  
"Of course, you stupid baka." Her tone was tender, and his sensitive ears caught the catch in her voice.  
  
Goodbye, goodbye walk away it's time to say goodbye.  
  
"Kagome, I will miss you."  
  
Kagome smiled and reached for Inuyasha's neck.  
  
He drew back, "What are you doing?"  
  
"I'm going to take off the rosary beads. There is no reason for you to have them on after I'm gone. I want to take you off your leash."  
  
"No." Inuyasha grabbed onto the beads and moved away from her grasp. "Leave them."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Just leave them."  
  
"Oh, Inuyasha." Kagome gasped, understanding.  
  
No longer can I hold on to this defeated change of heart, It's time to sing "fare thee well" to this life as we know it my voice it will be, you know I will be, yes it will be still.  
  
"Kagome, just know the only thing that binds me to Kikyo is an old promise." Inuyasha grabbed one of Kagome's hands and pulled it to his face, "It's to keep my word and my honor."  
  
Something woke me up in the midst of dream and fantasy halfway there, but he always fills my cup and he lifts me up, Oh how he lifts me up.  
  
Kagome looked at Inuyasha's face and eyes, all of it a mixture of sadness and pain. He reached for one of her hands and pulled it up to his cheek. He pressed it against his face, leaving it there for a moment to allow his hand to rest lightly on top of hers.  
  
Goodbye, goodbye walk away it's time to say goodbye..  
  
"Goodbye, Inuyasha!" Kagome tiptoed and put her lips on Inuyasha's forehead.  
  
Inuyasha closed his eyes, and reached for a strand of Kagome's hair. He let his fingers twine in between the strands and brought them to his face, "I wanted to get your scent one last time." He pulled her close to him and hugged her.  
  
"Goodbye, Kagome."  
  
She slowly pulled away from his grasp, turned her back to him, and walked to the well. Kagome turned around and waved to Inuyasha. She then jumped down the well.  
  
Inuyasha watched her disappear and felt his world shift into something frightening. He could not help but think that part of him had vanished with Kagome. His body slouched, and he began the walk back to Kaede's hut.  
  
I never took the time to stop and realize that death takes many forms even while alive. 


	2. Chapter 2

Coming Full Circle  
Chapter 2  
  
Inuyasha walked back into the village and saw Kaede, sitting in the dark with her eyes shut tightly and her mouth in a firm line. "Where is Kagome? I don't sense her presence."  
  
"She's gone back to her own time," Inuyasha's voice was unemotional. He looked down at the old woman and moved to sit beside her. "She said she something was pulling her back to her era."  
  
"Does this have anything to do with Kikyo?" One eye popped open and stared and the young hanyou.  
  
"She said it didn't, but to keep my honor I choose Kikyo."  
  
"Decisions are simple when the second option is removed." The old woman's voice was cracked with age, but her words were about the only ones that Inuyasha would take to heart. "I will miss the dear girl."  
  
"I will too," Inuyasha whispered to himself. He took a seat next to Kaede and closed his eyes.  
  
The two sat together and enjoyed the peace, until there was a stirring on top of the hill.  
  
"There's someone entering the village." A tall slender figure stood on a hill. "Kikyo," Inuyasha whispered. He moved from the ground slowly and approached the priestess.  
  
Kaede sighed, "I fear there is no honor in this decision, Inuyasha." Her words were too soft to reach the Inuyasha's sensitive ears.  
  
* * * *  
  
Kagome smiled at Hojou, "Yes, I'm feeling better."  
  
Hojou smiled at her kindly, "It's just that you were sick for so long that I worry it won't take much before you find yourself ill again. You've been at school everyday for a solid month now."  
  
"I have a feeling all of my sickness is over, Hojou."  
  
The boy smiled down at Kagome. He had liked her for so long and had tried for such so long to get her attention, but her attendance at school had been erratic to put it lightly. Her habit of canceling dates or just not showing up had driven him crazy, but for the first time in a year he could sense that all of her attention was on him. Hojou liked her change in heart; he liked it more than he could express.  
  
"Kagome, I know we haven't really discussed where we stand. I mean what you and I mean to one another. I mean whether or not we're going out." The poor boy stopped and took a breath. "Kagome, I just wanted to tell you that I like you, and now all of the sudden you seem to be willing to be with me. And I want you to be with me." Hojou looked down at his hands and began gazing at his fingers as though he had just realized he had hands for the first time.  
  
Kagome smiled to herself. She could not help but to be touched by his nervousness; something about it warmed her heart. He was a handsome boy, and there was no one who thought so highly of her or that would treat her with such a kind manner. For all the times she had snuck back to Inuyasha's time and left him alone, he had been willing to forgive her every time and had not once asked her the reason behind her tardiness. She knew she should move on and surely by now Kikyo had come back to the village and staked her claim on Inuyasha. At this very moment, the two of them could be sitting together, blissfully happy that they had finally come together after fifty-one years of misunderstanding.  
  
"Hojou, I do care for you."  
  
"I'm happy to hear it.," Hojou's face lit up with a grin, and he grabbed Kagome's hand. "Let me walk you home."  
  
Kagome had a sudden vision of Inuyasha. He was standing in front of her and looking at her with a tender look on his face, the same face Inuyasha gave her when he rescued her from one of the youkai that had captured her. Hojou was sweet, but he would never compare to Inuyasha.  
  
* * * * * * *  
  
Kikyo sat in the hut with Inuyasha, her eyes closed in thought. She had stayed with her sister for several weeks now, and she and Inuyasha had been spending a good deal of time together, but she still felt unwelcome here. He had hardly touched her in all the time they had been spending together, and her soul felt restless. All the priestess wanted was peace.  
  
"Inuyasha?"  
  
"Yes, Kikyo." Inuyasha said.  
  
"I have not asked this before now, but I need to know. Where is the Shikon no Tama?" She pulled her long dark hair from her face. "The jewel should be under my protection, and I feel that we should destroy it."  
  
"How do you plan on doing that?"  
  
"Making a wish on it. We could make a wish together that would purify the jewel and then we would not have to worry about any demons coming to seek it out. We will both be released from our duty to the jewel."  
  
"The Shikon is in my possession. Kagome gave it to me to do as I pleased with it." Inuyasha looked at the girl he had pledged his life to and spoke to her with a serious tone.  
  
"What do you plan on doing with it?"  
  
"I hadn't decided, Kikyo, but I will not become human if that is what you are asking." His amber eyes were soft, "I'm happy as I am. I don't want to be full demon or full human. If this past year has taught me anything it is that I am in the form that I was intended to be and I will not change that."  
  
Kikyo closed her eyes, "I was not going to ask you to give up what demon blood you have. I made that request fifty years ago and clearly it was not fated for you to become human."  
  
"Then what are you asking of me?"  
  
"I want rest, Inuyasha." Kikyo paused. This past year of life, living only a half life fueled by hatred, was full of horrible memories and horrors, and her return to the village brought only more agitation. This girl, Kagome, had taken so much from her. Inuyasha's companions on the trip had not forgiven her for giving the Shikon shards to Naraku and could not bring themselves to associate with her. Their loyalty to the girl could not be shaken, especially that young demon Shippou that would stick out his tongue at her when he thought she was not looking. "My life is only a half life; the life of the living dead. My body wants rest."  
  
"You want to wish for death?" Inuyasha's eyes were wide.  
  
"Yes, I want to return to the ground, but I want you to come with me." Inuyasha moved away from her. "Your soul is as restless as mine. We can die together. We can leave the binds of this world and the two of us can explore the next world. We can to it together, Inuyasha."  
  
Inuyasha stood up, "Give up my life?"  
  
"You told me that your life was mine, Inuyasha. You bound yourself to me."  
  
Inuyasha watched Kikyo with care. He loved Kikyo or he had loved Kikyo, and he understood her desire for rest but to ask for his life as well? "Kikyo, I promised you I'd become human once, but I never promised to die with you."  
  
Kikyo opened her eyes and tears formed at the corners, "It's the girl isn't it?"  
  
"I want to live, Kikyo. That has nothing to do with her. To ask me to die with you isn't a fair request."  
  
"You bound yourself to me, Inuyasha, not my reincarnation."  
  
Inuyasha knelt next to Kikyo, "I chose you."  
  
Kikyo looked away in anger, "Your heart didn't choose me."  
  
"Kikyo, you know my heart, and you know that I love you, but I want to live."  
  
Kikyo reached for Inuyasha's hand, "I should have known this is how things would end. Perhaps we should have listened to fate fifty years ago."  
  
"I'm sorry." Inuyasha touched Kikyo's face.  
  
"No, Inuyasha. Don't be sorry." Kikyo looked down at the floorboard of the hut. "I've asked myself many times why was it that we turned on one another so quickly. Why was I so fast to assume that you betrayed me, and why did you so quickly believe that I had betrayed you? I could not see it at the time, but now my vision is clear. We were not intended for one another."  
  
"Kikyo, do you want the Shikon no Tama?" Inuyasha pulled the jewel out from his red kimono. It shimmered in the dull light, still pure from Kagome's touch and ready to be handed to its original protector.  
  
"Yes." Kikyou stood up and looked at Inuyasha. "Thank you. I must speak to Kaede."  
  
"Kikyo," Inuyasha grabbed her and put his arms around her tightly, "I am glad you will have the peace you are seeking. Don't forget that I did love you with all my heart."  
  
"I know," she replied softly, her voice shaking. She turned and left the hut, not turning her head to look at him.  
  
* * * * * * Kagome sat at the desk in her bedroom, trying to concentrate on the algebraic equations that sat in front of her. She looked out the window and frowned. There was an odd movement in the pit of her stomach, a churning guilt she could not quite explain. It was odd. She reviewed the past few days in her head and turned over every thing she could recall trying to remember what she could have done to earn the sense of guilt that had been haunting her.  
  
Kagome threw her pencil down on the desk and moved to the window. She pressed her hand to it like she was trying to reach for some explanation behind her uneasiness. "I feel sick," she said to her empty room.  
  
She moved her hand away from the window and look at the fingerprints she left on the glass. Kagome looked at her reflection in the window, and suddenly a vision of Inuyasha appeared to her. He was running through the woods at top speed and by the expression on his face he looked upset, guilty, and almost ill. The vision then dissolved in front of here.  
  
"Inuyasha," she whispered. Something snapped in her mind. "I'm feel his pain." She pressed her hand back to the window.  
  
* * * * * Inuyasha stood at Kikyo's grave with Kaede. His eyes were haunted by memories, and his mouth had stayed in a constant frown.  
  
"Do not trouble your heart, Inuyasha. My sister needed peace and now she has it. She was never meant to be brought back to this world." She touched his arm and tried to bring the boy comfort.  
  
"Quiet, old hag." Inuyasha said. "I don't need your reassurances."  
  
"Before you completely shut out my words, listen to this. You're time here has just begun. Don't wrap yourself up in a fate that's not meant to be and kill yourself out of guilt."  
  
Inuyasha stared blankly out into the woods, "I don't believe in fate." His eyes moved to the direction of the Bone Eater's well. "Not anymore."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Kagome tossed from underneath the covers. She was in a deep sleep and everything was dark. Everything was colored in an ink black, but there were still shapes and forms that she could not quite make out. It was all deep and frightening, and the desire to scream was there, but she could not quite shape her mouth enough to scream. Suddenly one form came to the forefront of all the others. It was outlined in a thin line of silver, and two large wings protruded from its back. Suddenly, a fear bubbled up and a cry arose from her throat, all the breath from her lungs expelled in one long scream.  
  
An era earlier, Inuyasha awoke. "Kagome," he screamed. He could feel fear simmering up from an unknown source. He reached for his rosary beads, held them in his hand, and tightened his grip around the small beads. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
  
Kagome tried to settle back into her bedroom, but it had been so long since she had considered this home. She had not been home for longer than a month in a few years, and everything seemed so foreign to her, much like a mystery you once understood but now could not grasp. She had purposefully stayed away; there were too many memories and questions that were stirred up from the depths from her mind when she was home. That cursed well still stood near her home and it taunted her, showing her the gates which she could no longer pass through. But those were memories of the past, and she had taken her life into her own hands and had chosen to live. Kagome had made a pact with herself over four years ago. She would never let the remembrance of first love with a white-haired hanyou dominate her life. No, that would not happen. She would embrace life and not let the memory of an unreturned love haunt her, not now when there were more pressing matters to worry about.  
  
With the wedding just three weeks away, her whole life was now dictated by wedding plans, meetings with the caterer, dress fittings, and Shiro. He was handsome, tender, and whispered beautiful words into her ear. Shiro was a business major at university, and they had met in the library after Kagome accidentally dropped a heavy book at Shiro's feet. Right away, he was taken with her beauty, wit, and intelligence. There was something so passionate and intelligent within Kagome, like she had lived a life completely separate from the present time and knew more then most people her age deserved to know. Whatever it had been, Shiro had been fascinated by her and got down on one knee after knowing Kagome for only seven months.  
  
In the moment that Shiro proposed, Kagome had a jumble of thoughts ricocheting around her head; the most prominent was Inuyasha's jealousy whenever Kouga came within ten feet of her. The second thought was that only a foolish girl would refuse the huge ring and life full of happiness that Shiro was offering her, so she murmured a yes.  
  
It was not the marriage that Kagome had been unsure of, it was the month she would be staying at home with her mother and brother that unnerved her. She had gone away to university to avoid the well and the memories. She had majored in Japanese history, a subject she had become intrigued with while living a year in feudal Japan, and intended to get her doctorate so she could become a Professor of History at the university. She had worked to the point of exhaustion so she would receive the highest grades in her class. All of it to help her move past Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and Inuyasha, but all of it was pointless. No matter what she could accomplish or would accomplish, part of her would always remain in the past. Not even a fancy wedding and wonderful fiancée could erase that.  
  
"Kagome, come help me cook dinner," her mother yelled from the kitchen.  
  
"Coming, Mom," she hollered back. Kagome finished folding the last of her laundry, careful to fold along the creases to keep them from wrinkling. She walked out of the room and shut the door softly to keep from waking her sleeping grandfather.  
  
"Oh, there you are. Will you chop the vegetables for me?" Her mother handed over the large knife and cutting board. "Don't make them too fat. You know Souta won't eat the vegetable unless they're chopped very fine."  
  
"No problem, Mom." Kagome took the knife from her mother and began to chop her way through the carrots.  
  
"Are you glad to be home, Honey?" Her mother's question was quiet and almost difficult to hear under the slicing of the knife.  
  
"Of course I'm happy to be home. What makes you ask that?"  
  
"It's just that you've avoided coming home for so long, Kagome. I often wondered why you seem fearful to be inside this house."  
  
"I'm not scared of the house. I've just been busy. It's hard to make top marks, plan a wedding, and try to get early admission into graduate school all at once."  
  
Kagome's mother dropped the spoon and quit stirring the pot over the stove, "I know you're busy, and I'm so proud of you for what you've done at school, but you're only twenty-one. Take some time to breathe every once in a while." Her mother moved to her side and touched Kagome's shoulder, "Take some time to be happy."  
  
"Mom, I am happy."  
  
"Are you, Kagome? I don't mean content with the way things are going right now. I mean are you truly happy?"  
  
Kagome face softened, "I'm happy. Shiro has made me happier than I ever thought I could be."  
  
"Then I'm glad, but mark these words, my child. I haven't seen you look at Shiro the same way you would look at that boy from the past."  
  
The breath caught in Kagome's throat.  
  
"You had this look in your eye whenever Inuyasha came to this house. I haven't seen that twinkle since you came back to the present for good."  
  
Kagome dropped the knife on the cooking board and felt hot salty tears in the corner of her eye, "I'm happy. Shiro makes me happy."  
  
"Kagome, I don't say this to hurt you. I just want your life to be complete as mine was with your father."  
  
"Even if I wanted to be with Inuyasha . . . I mean go back to the past, which I don't, I couldn't. I gave the Shikon jewel to him. I can't return, but that's fine because my future is with Shiro. He loves me, Mom, and I love him."  
  
"Then forget I said anything," her mother said and turned back to the boiling pot.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Kagome looked in front of the dressing room mirror. She barely recognized herself in the silk ivory wedding gown. The line of silk fell just short of her collar bone and dipped in the center while the dress plunged down her back with a string of pearls cutting across the line of her back.  
  
"Kagome, you look beautiful!" Mariko said breathlessly. "I think this is the final fitting."  
  
"It's about time. I've been here for fittings at least seven times."  
  
"Well look at the end result." Mariko turned Kagome back to the long mirror. "It was worth it."  
  
Kagome smiled, "Yeah it was." She could not help but absentmindedly wonder what Inuyasha would say if he could see her in this dress. He would probably just say "Bah!" and call it a waste of good material.  
  
"Just think in a week you'll be Shiro's wife and the two of you will live in a huge house instead of the tiny apartment we've been living in for the last year."  
  
"I can't help it if Shiro's family is rich." Kagome rolled her eyes. "You make it sound like that's why I'm marrying him."  
  
"Well, you can't tell me that it's not part of the attraction," Mariko teased.  
  
Kagome laughed, "No. In all honesty, I'd marry Mariko if he didn't have a yen to his name. Heck, the first person I ever loved literally had no concept of money."  
  
"You loved someone before Shiro?" Mariko questioned.  
  
Kagome opened her eyes in surprise. She did not realize she had let that slip. "Yeah well, that was a long time ago. I was young."  
  
"So who is this mystery man you've never talked about before?"  
  
"Just someone from the past," Kagome whispered. "He really didn't matter because I'm marrying Shiro." Kagome felt something inside of her stomach hollow out, leaving her empty and alone.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Early in the morning, Kagome awoke with the image of a tall figure with wings burned into her retinas. The dream was always the same; a tall form with wings that seemed to be present only to haunt her. The form was always so solid, but the dream itself was so twisted and broken to make any sense of.  
  
It was six in the morning when Kagome awoke, a small breeze and sunbeam finding its way through her window. Kagome wiped her eyes and took a moment to realize that she was back home and asleep in her bedroom.  
  
"Today is the bridal shower Mom is planning for me," she said softly to herself. She peeled herself away from the warm covers and arose to get ready for the day. Kagome knew from experience it was best to leave the images of wings in her dreams and not drag them with her through the day. They only weighted her down.  
  
Kagome's mother had promised to take her out for an early brunch at and shopping afterwards. Kagome knew her mother was trying to drag her out of the house while Mariko and the rest of her friends snuck into the house to prepare for the bridal shower. After the day with her mother and the shower, Shiro was coming to take her out for dinner at a nice restaurant. Kagome knew she would have to dress for the entire day so she pulled out a black dress and a pair of high heeled shoes Shiro's mother had bought her as a present for her birthday.  
  
Kagome looked in the mirror before she left her room. The dress was plain in design, but it was so dark that it looked as though someone had made the dress out of spilt ink. It flattered her figure and skimmed the top of her knees. The shoes matched the dress perfectly and Kagome could not help but smile at the reflection in the mirror.  
  
"Not stunning, but not the awkward teenager I was either." She left her room, and walked through the house only to find her mother in the kitchen decorating a cake.  
  
Her mother tried to hide the cake quickly, "Oh Kagome, you're up early. Why don't you go take a quick walk so I can finish getting ready?"  
  
"Okay. I'll be back in a little while." Kagome smiled to herself, turned, and walked out the backdoor. She was touched by her mother's attempts to hide the cake and the party. Kagome began walking in an aimless direction, not really worrying about where she was heading and letting her feet take her in an all too familiar path. She stepped through the streets and hopped in a puddle, not caring about the splash and her now wet feet. It was not long before she found herself in front of her families' old temple. She felt an outward force pressing her towards the temple.  
  
She entered the door and looked at her surroundings, "It's been a while." She whispered to herself. She looked at the Bone Eater's Well, "I didn't want to come back."  
  
Kagome looked into the depth of the well and the darkness surrounding it. She remembered how slinging herself the sides and into the darkness was so casual, but back then she had a reason for throwing herself into the darkness. Inuyasha. The quest for the Shikon no Tama and the destruction for Naraku was the main motivator, but if it were all condensed into one thin line the reason behind it all was Inuyasha.  
  
"I didn't want to come back," she repeated. Kagome thoughts began to bounce through her head. There were so many memories that she had tried to repress into a distant corner of her mind; Miroku's good humor and perverted attempts to grope her, Sango's friendship, Shippou curling in her arms and calling her mother, Inuyasha's flashing amber eyes, the time he hugged her fiercely, the times he chose Kikyo rather than her, and all the times he made her cry.  
  
In one instant all the thoughts channeled into one single image, a tall form with wings, the faceless form with the silver lining. The image made Kagome dizzy and she tried to grab the side of the well. She hobbled and gave up grasping the side, instead choosing to sit on the edge. Kagome sat and for a second felt the shakiness leave her limbs for a moment, but it resurged a moment later and she felt herself falling backwards.  
  
An odd sensation entered into Kagome's body and a flash of light surrounded her. She felt a dull thud as she hit the dirt at the bottom of the well.  
  
"Shoot! Now how am I going to get back up to the top in these heels?" Kagome said. "Mom's going to be expecting me home soon!"  
  
Kagome heard the cry of a large bird from above and looked up at the light. Rather than seeing the roof of the temple, Kagome saw green tree tops and a blue sky.  
  
"It couldn't be," Kagome said with a shocked whisper. "It's not possible." A familiar smell of the woods she used to travel through made its way down the well.  
  
Kagome sighed and had an unearthly desire to cry, scream, yell, or do all three at the same time, "This isn't fair. I just want to get married. I just want to move on, but NO! I get dragged back here, and I don't even have the stupid jewel with me! And of course Inuyasha and Kikyo will be there and they'll be so happy with little cute kids."  
  
She finished rambling, sighed, and then pulled her high heels off her feet, bit the straps with her teeth to hold onto them, and began to climb out of the well. Luckily, the year spent tracking through the woods had helped Kagome's agility and she had lost none of it in the last five years. Kagome grabbed her shoes from her mouth, tossed them over the edge of the well, and climbed out.  
  
Kagome thought to herself, "Guess I'll head to the village. Doesn't look like I have any other options. I'll stay with Kaede until I can figure out what's going on, and then I'm out of here."  
  
She put her shoes back on and began the walk. Kagome looked at the forest and felt a comfort cover her. "I'd forgotten how beautiful it was here," she thought to herself. Before long, Kagome found herself in the village. She made her way to Kaede's hut and banged her wrist against the thick wood.  
  
A young boy answered the door, "Hello. Who are you?" He had black hair, dark eyes, and a smile that looked familiar.  
  
"My name is Kagome. Who are you?" Kagome smiled.  
  
"Taru." He tilted his head to the side and tried to study her.  
  
"Is Kaede here?"  
  
"No, not right now, but my Mama is here."  
  
"Taru, who is that?" A lyrical voice came from inside the hut. A woman came to the door. She had long dark hair, thick bangs, and was very pregnant, but it only took Kagome a second to recognize her.  
  
"Sango?"  
  
"Kagome?" Sango squinted her eyes and studied her for a moment, before throwing her arms around Kagome. "How did you get here? We thought you went home? How is this possible?"  
  
Kagome smiled, "I don't know, Sango. I fell down my families' well and found myself here."  
  
Sango hugged Kagome a second time, "Oh, how I've missed you. Sometimes there are just too many men in this house."  
  
"Did you and Miroku marry? And is he yours?" Kagome asked in a rush.  
  
Sango reached for the little boy and picked me up, "Yep. This little devil is mine, and Miroku is his Daddy." Sango grinned wide.  
  
"And you're pregnant?" Kagome touched Sango's stomach.  
  
"Three months and we'll have another one."  
  
"Well, Miroku wanted twenty kids." Kagome teased.  
  
"He can keep on wishing. He is not getting twenty kids." Sango smiled. "Oh, Kagome it is so good to see you." Sango hugged Kagome for the third time. "We've missed you so much. You don't know what it means to see again. Let me get a look at you." Kagome twirled around. "You've changed. You're taller, Kagome and a little thinner too."  
  
"I've grown up."  
  
"Look at you. You look all fancy, and you have a huge jewel on your finger." Sango grabbed Kagome's hand and began to look at the huge diamond that sat on a platinum band.  
  
"It's an engagement ring. My future husband, Shiro, gave it to me. It's like a promise that he'll take my hand in marriage."  
  
Sango raised her eyebrows, "He must love you to give you a promise that large."  
  
"He's good to me." Kagome answered.  
  
Sango sucked her mouth, not sure how to respond.  
  
"So where are Miroku and Shippou? I want to see them." Kagome asked.  
  
"Shippou went out with Kaede to pick some herbs and Miroku is with Inuyasha."  
  
"Inuyasha?" Kagome voice shook and cracked.  
  
Sango noticed the look in Kagome's eyes, "Shippou should be back soon."  
  
As if on cue a young demon, about the age of ten bounded through the back door of the hut, "Sango, you should see some of the herbs we found. Kaede will be able to brew plenty of medicine for the village."  
  
Shippou stopped at the sight of Kagome at the door, "Kagome?"  
  
Kagome gave a hesitant grin, "It's me, Shippou."  
  
Shippou ran past Sango and threw himself in Kagome's open arms, "Mama."  
  
It felt so satisfying to have Shippou in her arms again. She could not have loved Shippou more if he had been her own child, and having him near her gave her a sense of completion.  
  
Kagome kissed the top of his shaggy head, "I missed you too."  
  
"Come inside. Let me make you some dinner." Shippou grabbed her hand and tugged her inside, sitting her at a table. He began cooking some soup, and in less than ten minutes had a warm bowl of creamy soup for her to eat. "Eat, Kagome."  
  
"Thank you." Kagome picked up the spoon and let the soup wind its way through her body. It was wonderful to have something warm and solid inside her stomach. Looking at Sango take care of little Taru and Shippou near her gave Kagome an odd sense of being home.  
  
"This is wonderful. You've become quite a cook."  
  
Shippou grinned widely, "Kaede is teaching me."  
  
A loud noise came from outside the front door of the hut. Something slammed and it sounded like wood from the hut had just cracked.  
  
"Sango, who dragged out all of Kagome's old stuff?" A yell and growl from the door came, and Kagome froze. The door slammed open, "I could smell it all the way from the woods. Didn't I tell you guys to keep all that stuff packed away?" Inuyasha's screaming could have been heard from a mile away.  
  
Kagome looked at Inuyasha. He looked wild and angry, very angry. His eyes flashed, "Sango, where are you?"  
  
Inuyasha's eyes ran quickly through the cabin, but stopped on Kagome. His mouth dropped, and his grip on the exotic fruit he held in his hand relaxed. The fruit fell to the floor and rolled away, completely unnoticed by the hanyou.  
  
"Kagome?" he whispered.  
  
Kagome stood up from the table and stared at Inuyasha. For several seconds the two held eye contact from across the room, neither being able to move. Inuyasha was the first to take a step. He moved slowly across the room and stopped a few inches from Kagome. He extended a shaking hand towards Kagome's face, and made contact with the skin on her face.  
  
* Thank you to everyone who had reviewed. It really makes my day to find reviews underneath my story and it is a huge encouragement, so thank you for taking the time. Hope you like this chapter and sorry to end it with a semi-cliffhanger, but it seemed to be the best place to separate this chapter with what I have planned in the next chapter. So thanks for taking the time to read, and if it so moves you review please! 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
  
Inuyasha's hand was shaking, but one claw traced a line down Kagome's smooth cheek. "Kagome, you're here," Inuyasha whispered, his amber eyes boring into her and wide in disbelief. "How?"  
  
It had been so long since he had laid eyes on her, so long since he had been able to inhale her scent and allow it to calm and pacify him, but Kagome was in front of him. He could not deny it; he had touched her.  
  
Kagome lightly grabbed Inuyasha's wrist, "I fell down the well." Her eyes were wild and scared, "I don't know how I got here. I gave the Shikon to you."  
  
Inuyasha relaxed and a light smile played on his mouth, "I never thought you'd come back." He let his hand fall back to his side, and he stepped back to study Kagome. She was taller, and her hair was a bit longer and flatter, but it still was a dark black with those odd bluish highlights that came whenever she was near any source of light. It looked like she had loss a bit of weight too, and her posture was a little straighter, a little more stiff. "You look different."  
  
Kagome frowned, "Different?"  
  
"Your hair is flat, and all that hair that was in your eyes is gone."  
  
"My bangs?" Kagome's eyebrows furrowed downward.  
  
"Whatever you call them." He waved his hand dismissively, "You don't have them anymore. And your face is all painted."  
  
"My hair is not flat, it's straight. And it's fashionable to not have any bangs." Kagome's tone hit a familiar and dangerous level that Inuyasha was all too familiar with. If her past behavior was any indicator, a sit would soon accompany that tone. "And all that paint on my face is called make- up. In my era, women wear it all the time."  
  
"What's that look for?" Inuyasha asked, pointing to Kagome's angry glare. "All I said was that you looked different."  
  
Kagome folded her arms, "I'm back for the first time in almost five years and all you can say is "how'd you get here" and "you look different". Brush up on your people skills, Inuyasha."  
  
The door of the hut opened slowly, "Looks like Kagome has returned, and she and Inuyasha have reacquainted themselves with their old habit of fighting." Kaede said slowly, her voice cracking with age. She carried a basket full of herbs and plants in her arms.  
  
"Let me get that for you, Kaede." Shippou jumped up from the table and gently took the basket from Kaede. He leaned down to her ear and whispered, "I missed their fighting."  
  
Kaede smiled, "Me too, young one. It's nice to have something lively in this hut besides young Taru."  
  
Kagome walked over to Kaede, making a point to give Inuyasha a final frown before turning her back to him, "Kaede, it is so good to see you again. How have you been?"  
  
"Fine, child, but I am wondering why you are present in this era. Come and speak with me privately." Kaede began to walk outside of the hut, Kagome following. Inuyasha glowered at both of their backs and crossed his arms. "Inuyasha, you come too, but I will tolerate no more of that bitter tongue of yours."  
  
"Feh." Inuyasha replied, but fell into line behind the two women.  
  
Kaede slid the door of the hut open and stepped outside, her feet hitting the dirt and grass solidly while Kagome's high heels sunk into the dirt. She watched Inuyasha's bare feet hit the ground with the same firmness and mentally cursed her shoes and clothing. Kagome took another step, her heel sunk fast into the moist ground.  
  
"Stupid heels." Kagome stopped and looked down at her designer shoes. Kaede and Inuyasha continued walking while Kagome lifted one leg off the ground and began to push the shoe off of her foot. Walking barefoot was a better alternative than sinking into the dirt. She began to wobble a bit while taking off the shoe, but before she had the opportunity to tip to one side Inuyasha appeared at her side, firmly grabbing onto her elbow.  
  
Inuyasha gave Kagome a stern look, "Keep up." There was a ragged edge it his tone and in response Kagome felt the creases in her forehead as her eyebrows frowned.  
  
She yanked her elbow from his grasp, "It's the shoes. Let me take them off and then I'll keep up."  
  
"Why Lady Kagome, I see you have returned and you are as feisty as I remembered you." Kagome looked away from Inuyasha and saw a grinning Miroku several feet away. He was smiling and it looked as though his eyes were laughing in that calm peaceful manner that she remembered.  
  
"Miroku," Kagome smiled, "I was wondering where you were." She approached him.  
  
"Well, Inuyasha and I were out patrolling the outskirts of the village for demons, but Inuyasha threw a tantrum and ran back to the village. I now see why."  
  
"It's wonderful to see you again." She inspected him for a moment. "It's so odd to see you as a husband and father. I never would have suspected it from the lecher that used to try and grope me, but clearly married life suits you." Kagome grinned wickedly at the blush that arose in Miroku's face as she brought up his past.  
  
"That was all in the past, Lady Kagome. But if you don't mind me saying, the dress you are wearing is quite arousing if you don't mind me saying so." Kagome blushed herself, and reminded herself that turnabout was fair play as she noticed the gleam in Miroku's eyes.  
  
"I see old habits die hard," she said.  
  
"Enough, Monk." Inuyasha walked up to Miroku, folded his arms, and scowled. "The old hag, Kagome, and I were going to talk. Why don't you go home and go see Taru?" Kaede rolled her eyes and waited patiently for the confrontation to end.  
  
"An excellent suggestion, Inuyasha." Miroku turned to Kagome, "I will see you soon, Kagome. It is good to have you back." He grabbed her hands, squeezed both of them, and leaned down to her ear to whisper, "Inuyasha is also glad to have you back even if his mood does not indicate it."  
  
Inuyasha's ears twitched, "Are we going to go speak to Kaede or not, Kagome? I'm tired of wasting my time."  
  
Kagome sighed, "Yes. I'm coming." Kagome grinned at Miroku and patted his hand, "I will see you soon, Miroku."  
  
Miroku smiled in return and then turned away to walk back to Kaede's hut. Inuyasha grunted and then began to follow Kaede, whom had already turned and began to walk towards the woods. They walked for a few moments until finding a clearing at the edge of the woods. Kaede sat on the soft grass; Inuyasha and Kagome did the same.  
  
"Kagome, I find myself wondering how you made it back to this era without the Shikon jewel. Tell me how you got here." Kaede shut her eyes as though she were already mentally preparing herself for Kagome's answer.  
  
Kagome bit her lip in thought, "I don't know how I got here, Kaede. One minute I was sitting at the edge of the well and the next I was falling down it. When I hit bottom I was here, in this era."  
  
"Why did you fall?"  
  
"I just got dizzy, almost sick to my stomach." Kagome stopped for a moment and tried to think about the moment, slowing each second of it down in her mind. "No, I saw the form first. I saw that figure with wings. It was almost like a vision, Kaede. I've had it before, but it's never made me sick like that. I sat on the edge of the well for a second but I must have gotten really dizzy and fallen backwards."  
  
During the speech Inuyasha had closed his eyes just as Kaede had, but at the mention of the figure with wings his eyes snapped open.  
  
"A vision that contained a form with wings?" Kaede frowned. "You've had this vision before?"  
  
"Well, they come in dreams, Kaede. More like nightmares actually. It's the same figure every time and he always stands there like he's looking into me, but I can't see his face. He's outlined by some silver light that is coming from behind him, but all I can see is the outline of his figure and the wings. His wingspan is huge."  
  
Kaede opened her small eyes and narrowed them at Inuyasha, "Is this not the same dream you've described to me? Miroku told me you dreamed of the winged figure again just this morning?"  
  
Kagome's mouth dropped, "I had the dream this morning too."  
  
Inuyasha grimaced, "So what does all this mean?"  
  
"It means that we have found the reason for Kagome's reappearance. For whatever reason, she was brought back because of this dream, and the fact is that the two of you share this vision."  
  
"That doesn't explain anything." Inuyasha jumped up from the ground and stared at Kaede angrily, "Can't you tell us more than that."  
  
"Patience, Inuyasha. I will tell you all that I can, but I fear that I little about why Kagome was called back into this world."  
  
"Called back?" Kagome asked. "By who?"  
  
"Do you not think it odd that you had this vision before you became ill and fell back into this world? The truth of the matter is that you should not be able to travel from your era into this one without the Shikon jewel. It is the vision that called you back into this world or the person who has sent you this vision."  
  
"But who would want me back in this world?" Kagome asked. "My purpose here ended once the Shikon jewel was pieced back together and Naraku was destroyed."  
  
"I am afraid I am unsure child, but the one thing I can tell you is that both you and Inuyasha are being called upon by this figure."  
  
"What does it want me for? I've been her the whole time." Inuyasha's voice was sharp and agitated.  
  
"Inuyasha, have you heard the legend of the angels?" Kaede asked.  
  
"Angels? There's no such thing." He gave Kaede a patronizing look and wondered how a priestess such as Kaede could entertain old fairy tales.  
  
"Why would there not be angels, Inuyasha when demons trod upon this land. You yourself have demon blood."  
  
"It's just a fable, Kaede. A legend. There's no truth behind it."  
  
Kaede ignored Inuyasha and turned her gaze to Kagome, "There is an old legend. One that tells of angels walking among humans and demons, but for a reason only they knew, they exiled themselves to the east. They walked away from humans and demons to reside on a sacred mountain, free from all others."  
  
"Why are you telling me this?" Kagome looked at Kaede's steady gaze. Kaede stared into Kagome's eyes and Kagome could swear she saw pity rising to the surface of Kaede's old faded eyes.  
  
"You must go to the mountain, Kagome. I do not believe the visions will stop until you find the figure in your dreams."  
  
"What about me?" Inuyasha cracked his knuckles and stretched his claws. "Where do I fit into all of this?"  
  
"You have also received the dreams, Inuyasha. They are calling out to you as well, but they have reached Kagome through many eras. For some reason I feel that it is more important for them to see her."  
  
Kagome stood up, walked over to Kaede, knelt down next to her, and then grabbed her hand, "Are you sure that I have to do this? I have a life in my own era that I need to get back to. I can't just leave it behind like I did before. There's something very important coming up for me." Shiro's smiling face and gentle eyes flashed in Kagome's mind. She could see him kneeling down in front of her, holding out a ring and pledging himself to her for the rest of his life.  
  
Kaede looked at the young woman in front of her, her face full of understanding, "I'm sorry, child. I can think of no other way to make these dreams of yours stop. If the dispatcher of these dreams has indeed reached through time to bring you here, then it is dire that you find the cause for this all."  
  
Kagome nodded at Kaede and grabbed her hand. It was happening again. She was being pulled into this time, forced to stay and work for a purpose that she did understand. She would have to stand at Inuyasha's side again and put up with his temper and childishness. She knew he would unintentionally berate her, make her question her worth, and somehow always find the way to press tears from her eyes. She knew he would break her heart a second time. It was unlikely that Kikyo would let Inuyasha travel alone with her, and the thought of watching the two of them together, their love being open and full for her to see, made the bile in her stomach churn.  
  
Kagome looked at Kaede, "Thank you, Kaede. I'll do what I have to." She got up and began to walk back to the hut, not bothering to give Inuyasha a second glance.  
  
"What's so important that you just have to get back to your own time?" Inuyasha yelled at her. His eyes glazed over with a sliver of desperation, "Kagome, are you listening?" His voice cut through the air.  
  
"Nothing, Inuyasha." She whispered, knowing that his sensitive ears would catch her words and the slight choking sound that she could not keep in the back of her throat. "Nothing at all."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"Why can't I go, Kaede?" Shippou looked as the old woman with desperation. It had been so long since he had been near the woman he considered his second mother and now Inuyasha was taking her away.  
  
"I'm sorry, but this is a journey that only Inuyasha and Kagome can go on. You are not meant to travel with them this time." Kaede turned away and walked out of the room, refusing to listen to Shippou's pleading since she knew how convincing the boy could be.  
  
Shippou shifted his pitiful look over to Kagome hoping for a different answer, "Kagome, do you not want me to come?"  
  
"No. That's not it at all. I want you to come, Shippou, so we can catch up and you can tell me about all the things that have happened while I've been away, but where I'm going you can't come." Shippou could feel tears brimming to the surface, but he kept them in just as Inuyasha had taught him. Kagome's observant eyes knew all the emotions of the young kitsune as though she could read him like the page of an old book, and she took Shippou's face into her hands. "I promise I'll be back soon and then you can tell me every story you want."  
  
"Promise?"  
  
Kagome looked him directly in the eyes, "I promise. The same promise a mother gives her son." Shippou's face took on a wonderful grin and he threw his arms around Kagome's neck.  
  
Sango looked on at the pair and felt warmth spread across her; the same warmth she felt whenever Taru would give her his lopsided grin, the same grin she remembered in Kohaku's face. "Kagome, when are you leaving?" she asked, breaking the moment between the pair.  
  
"Inuyasha said we're leaving first thing in the morning." Kagome rolled her eyes. "He said he didn't have any time to waste."  
  
"Sounds like Inuyasha," Shippou said.  
  
"No, it's a good thing. I need to get home soon. My family and friends are probably worried to death about me. Something tells me that Souta and Mom will have a slight suspicion about where I am, but they can hardly tell everyone that I've traveled back in time." A small sigh leaked out of Kagome, "Besides I have someone waiting for me." Kagome felt a pang of guilt in her side as she thought about Shiro sitting at a table in a dimly lit restaurant waiting for her to come and join him for dinner. She knew Shiro would be worried sick when he realized she would not be joining him for dinner.  
  
"If you're leaving tomorrow, then you should probably find a change of clothing. You'll get some odd stares in that dress you're wearing." Sango explained. "You can borrow one of my kimonos. It'll be more practical for traveling."  
  
Kagome looked down at her black dress, "I suppose what I'm wearing seems scandalous to everyone of this era. It's actually pretty conservative for my era, but Miroku has already made a comment about it."  
  
Sango laughed, "Sounds like Miroku."  
  
"Sango, are you really happy with the life you've chosen?" Kagome looked up at her in all earnestness. "You know, giving up the life of a demon slayer and trading it in for Miroku and motherhood."  
  
Sango face became gentle, "I didn't give up anything. I still protect the village from demons and I get to be a mother and wife, all at the same time. Believe it or not, Kagome, Miroku's eyes have never strayed since the day he asked me to be his bride. He may joke or pretend, but he only has eyes for me."  
  
Kagome's face broke into a wide grin and she felt comforted in knowing that she could marry Shiro without giving up her dreams.  
  
"Now, why don't we find you a kimono to travel in?" Sango walked to her room in the hut and opened a maple chest. She pulled out a blue kimono with a crisp white shirt to fall underneath of it. "Here we go. This will be lovely on you and it's sensible."  
  
"Thanks, Sango." Kagome held the kimono towards the candlelight and felt immense gratitude rise up within her. This would be perfect for the path that lay ahead of her.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Inuyasha and Miroku sat outside the hut, enjoying the midsummer night and the cool air that drifted by. Miroku noted that Inuyasha had been rather sullen and silent since the announcement of his and Kagome's departure.  
  
"Inuyasha, would you like to tell me what is bothering you?"  
  
Inuyasha grunted and turned to look inside the hut. The door was wide open and Inuyasha could see Kagome speaking to Sango with the trace of a smile on her face. Taru was curled up into her lap sleeping, and Inuyasha could not help but notice how quickly the young boy had taken to Kagome but children always had warmed up to Kagome quickly. Inuyasha wondered how he could have forgotten that. Watching Taru and Shippou, both who had hovered over Kagome since her arrival, he felt a desire well up inside of him. He could not define what the yearning was, but he knew that in watching her it had etched itself out quickly, tired of being repressed by the hanyou.  
  
"Nothing is bothering me," Inuyasha snarled back.  
  
Miroku sighed and stretched his legs out in front of him, "She found her way back, Inuyasha."  
  
Inuyasha pulled his legs to his chest, pretending to rearrange himself so he could be more comfortable. He rested his chin at the top of his knees, his amber eyes staring out into the forest surrounding the village, "She doesn't want to be here."  
  
"What makes you say that? Look at her." Miroku pointed inside the hut and spoke quietly, trying not to draw the women's attention towards them, "She looks happy enough."  
  
"She said she needed to get home. She had something important to get back to." His continued to stare at the forest, his gaze never wavering from the dark trees.  
  
"Is that why you've been treating her so rudely?"  
  
Inuyasha's face tightened and his eyes moved quickly to Miroku, "She's the one who's been rude. I tried to be nice."  
  
Miroku laughed softly, "Is this about the argument the two of you had when you first saw her. Sango told me about that disagreement. It seems as though you insulted Kagome."  
  
"I was trying to compliment her," Inuyasha said, trying to gather all his dignity while saying the words. "It's not my fault if she's too thick to understand."  
  
"Would you like some advice?" Miroku asked. Inuyasha merely grunted and returned his gaze back to the forest.  
  
"Well, my friend I am married and you are not, so just humor me for one moment." Miroku said calmly with humor lacing into his words. "Don't try so hard. Just be honest with her."  
  
"Honest about what?" Inuyasha asked in surprise.  
  
"That is for you to discern, Inuyasha."  
  
Miroku got up and dusted the dirt off himself. He walked inside the hut and knelt in front of Kagome, "Thank you for getting Taru to sleep. It's become quite a challenge in the last few months." He took Taru gently from Kagome's arms and held him softly to keep from waking the sleeping boy. Miroku stopped and pressed his lips to Sango's forehead before taking Taru to bed.  
  
* * * * * Kagome felt someone shaking her and she opened her eyes. The world was thick and hazy as she tried to make out her surroundings. She blinked several times.  
  
"Kagome, it's time to go," Inuyasha said in a quiet and emotionless manner.  
  
"I'm up, I'm up." She replied.  
  
She moved into an unoccupied room and changed into the kimono Sango had given her and then tiptoed into Sango's and Miroku's room to tell them she was leaving. She stopped and looked at the young couple; Miroku had his arm tightly around Sango's protruding belly as though he were trying to protect her and the unborn child. They very close to one another and there was something tender in the air as she watched them for a moment.  
  
She finally walked and tapped Sango's shoulder, "We're leaving, Sango. Tell Shippou goodbye for me."  
  
"I will tell him." Sango whispered. "And good tides to you, Kagome. Come back to us soon."  
  
"I will." Kagome smiled. She grabbed a pair of sandals Sango had set out for her and fastened them to her feet before leaving the room. Sango smiled and gave a small wave as Kagome waved a small farewell and walked out the door.  
  
"Took you long enough," Inuyasha grunted as Kagome stepped out of the hut. "Are you ready now?" He spoke to Kagome as though she were a petulant child that merely wanted to tag along with him.  
  
"I'm ready," she sighed.  
  
Inuyasha turned and began walking away from the hut, "By the way, you look nice in the kimono." His words were barely audible and came out more in a growl.  
  
"What, Inuyasha?"  
  
"I said you look nice. Not let's get a move on, wench."  
  
Kagome fell into step behind Inuyasha and walked with him in silence until they reached the edge of the village. At the moment they hit the tree-line Kagome stopped walking and bit her lip in thought.  
  
Inuyasha walked a few steps before turning back to look at the still Kagome, "Why did you stop?" He snarled.  
  
"Inuyasha, doesn't Kikyo care that you're leaving?" Her voice shook as she asked the question. "Where is she anyway?"  
  
The fierce look on Inuyasha's face was wiped away by the question. Guilt pooled to the top of his amber eyes and he looked down at the ground, "Kikyo is at rest. She's in a better place." He immediately turned back around and continued walking, telling Kagome by his body language that he would not be answering any more questions on the subject.  
  
Kagome looked at Inuyasha's back and recognized the guilt he was bearing on his shoulders. She felt empathy for him, and asked no more questions. Instead, she followed him into the unknown, unconsciously putting her faith in him just as she had five years before.  
  
* Sorry that it's taken me so long to post another chapter. I have the entire story inside my head, but transferring it onto paper is a long process. I also have summer classes so my free time is rather limited, but thank you for your patience. Major kudos to everyone who reviewed. I don't know if this chapter did justice to these characters and I am certain that some of the dialogue is a bit out of character so if anyone has constructive criticism I'd love to hear it. You can even flame me if that is your heart's desire. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read; I know it's a long tedious story. But anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter because frankly the reason I write is to make people think and for the reader's enjoyment. 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
  
Kagome looked up at the sky, noting that the sun hovered directly above her. It had to be just a little past noon and Kagome felt the rumbling from the insides of her stomach. She wanted to ask Inuyasha to take a break in order for her to rest her legs and grab a bite to eat, but he showed no signs of exhaustion and kept moving onward as a steady, fast pace. Even though she would rather chew glass with bare teeth than admit it, Kagome was falling bit by bit behind Inuyasha and for the last hour had to jog just to keep up.  
  
Inuyasha moved forward only sparing Kagome a few backwards glances to make sure she was keeping in step with him. He could hear her footsteps hitting the ground with a greater frequency, signs that she was had to quicken her pace to keep up with him, but he did not want to look back at her or stop. If he looked back, Kagome would ask him to stop and when they stopped she would start with the questions. Kagome loved questions, and he had a sneaking suspicion that most of those questions would deal with Kikyo. Most of Kagome's questions were a lot like the arrows she carried on her back; pointed, direct, and had an incredible knack of hitting its intended target. Inuyasha had no desire to answer any questions.  
  
For the next few minutes, Kagome tried to focus on the forest around her rather than the brooding hanyou in front of her. It was the same as before. The trees were tall and untouched, unlike the trees in her time. There were flowers and herbs that grew freely upon the dirt paths they took, and there were birds calling from the limbs of the trees. She had missed this; the trees, the birds, the flowers, and the simple way of life that existed in this era. Kagome smiled to herself; it was not too difficult to ignore Inuyasha with all of the beauty that encompassed her.  
  
Inuyasha's sensitive ears heard Kagome's footsteps slowing, and took a quick peak behind his shoulders to see what she was doing. Kagome walked slowly and it looked as though she was staring into the woods with a soft look on her face. He frowned; trust Kagome to get all sappy over stupid things.  
  
"Hey, Kagome! Keep up." Inuyasha yelled over his shoulder.  
  
Kagome sighed, "Can we stop? I'm hungry and we've been walking for hours without a break. Surely we covered enough ground that even you can't complain." Without waiting for a response, Kagome pulled the bundle off her back and pulled out the bread Kaede had given her. She searched Inuyasha's face for any hint of defiance as she plopped to the ground and pinched off a piece of bread.  
  
"Guess I don't have any say in the matter," he grumbled under his breath. He turned back and sat down a foot or two a way from Kagome, holding his hand out for a piece of bread and rolling his eyes all the while.  
  
"It'll only take a few minutes to rest and eat." Kagome said, ignoring the look on Inuyasha's face. "Why are you in such a hurry anyway?"  
  
"We're chasing after something that doesn't exist. It's a waste of my time."  
  
"How do you know angels don't exist?"  
  
"You haven't exactly seen any winged creatures around here before have you? Kaede's brains are getting all soft in her old age." Inuyasha snapped.  
  
Kagome broke off another piece of bread, "Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There has to be a reason why they've stayed away from everyone."  
  
"You don't actually believe all that angel garbage Kaede was feeding us?" He raised his eyebrows and looked at Kagome as though he believed all common sense had leaked from her head.  
  
"I saw a lot of things in this era I never thought existed; demons, dragons, witches, magical spells." Kagome lifted one finger to count off every thing she mentioned. "I don't see why angels couldn't be one of those things. Besides, Kaede has never been wrong about anything before."  
  
"Feh." Inuyasha crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the ground impatiently.  
  
"Inuyasha, you've keep saying you don't want to waste your time. What are you're in such a hurry to get back too?"  
  
"It doesn't matter."  
  
"No, it does." Kagome frowned. "I want to know what's happened to you since I left." Inuyasha yawned and tapped his fingers against the sleeve of his arm. "Well, you haven't exactly been a great conversationalist all morning. I just thought I'd give it a try." Kagome said.  
  
"Nothing important," he responded, "just traveling around with Miroku making sure there aren't any dangerous demons attacking humans."  
  
Kagome's mouth dropped, "You're protecting humans?"  
  
"I've got to do something with the Tetsusaiga." Kagome tried to hold back the snicker in the back of her throat by clapping a hand over her mouth, but the laughter made it through. "What's so funny?" Inuyasha demanded, his tone hitting a precarious level.  
  
"Nothing," Kagome giggled. "It's just that for someone who wanted to be a full demon so badly and despised humans, protecting them isn't what I'd expect. It's kind of funny."  
  
Inuyasha balled his fist and shook it at her, "Well, what have you been doing that's so important?"  
  
"I'm at the university."  
  
"The what?"  
  
"School. I'm at the highest level of school that my time has."  
  
"You always liked those stupid tests you had to run home and take."  
  
Kagome chuckled, "I hate tests, but I do like to learn. You might find this funny, but my major is history and my area of interest is this era."  
  
"I'm laughing so hard I may cry." Inuyasha said without a dash of emotion.  
  
"I give up." Kagome placed both hands up in the air in mock surrender. "I've tried to be nice and make conversation but you keep giving me the cold shoulder. What is wrong with you?"  
  
"Nothing. I just want to go to this stupid mountain and prove to you that there aren't any stupid angels so I can get back to my life and so you can go home."  
  
"Is that what you want? You want me gone." Kagome stood up, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Well by all means let's go so I can get out of here."  
  
"You were the one who said you didn't want to be here," Inuyasha barked back at her, his face cold.  
  
Kagome looked at him with understanding, "You're angry with me because I said I needed to get back home."  
  
Inuyasha shook his head furiously, "That's not what I said."  
  
"No, but that's what you meant." Kagome inched closer to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, smiling gently at him. "I've know you too well. You always get mad and moody when someone has hurt you. I don't know why I didn't see it before."  
  
"I never said that you hurt me," he continued to protest.  
  
"You didn't have to." Kagome inched back to her spot. "I can read you like a book."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"Nothing." Kagome stood up, dusted herself off, and wrapped the bread back up. "C'mon lets go. I've rested long enough."  
  
"Finally." He stood up and watched her place the bread back into her bundle.  
  
"And, Inuyasha," Kagome grinned, walking past him, "You don't have to say you missed me. I know you did." Inuyasha's mouth dropped and he watched Kagome walk ahead of him, shock holding him in place.  
  
"Don't worry. I missed you too." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Now let's get a move on."  
  
* * * * * * *  
  
The two spent the rest of the day walking in silence; one being too confused to speak and the other merely content to walk along and nature. Soon, the sky's color began to dim and dusk covered it. Kagome looked up at the sky and hoped they could stop and sleep. She walked all day long and the sandals began to rub her skin and her legs were tired.  
  
"Inuyasha, can we stop now? I'm worn out."  
  
He looked out at the woods and his ears twitched, "Might as well. If we don't stop now we're going to run into some demons soon enough. I'd rather avoid trouble if we can."  
  
Kagome smiled, "Never thought I'd see the day you tried to avoid a fight." She set her bundle on the ground.  
  
"I'm not in the mood to pick a fight. If we leave them alone they'll probably leave us alone." Inuyasha took a few steps to the left and bent down to pick up some wood. "And if they don't. . ." he pointed to the Tetsusaiga, "they'll wish they had."  
  
Kagome began to gather wood for a fire as well. Soon there was a warm fire burning, and the two had eaten dinner. Kagome looked at Inuyasha; he was staring at the fire as though he were caught up in a whirlwind of memories. "What're you thinking about?"  
  
Inuyasha lifted his golden gaze to her, "Nothing important."  
  
Kagome shrugged; no point in trying to drag it out of him. She sighed, "I think I'm going to sleep." She stood up and left Inuyasha with the fire and his thoughts. Kagome felt for the ground and pushed some leaves in a pile before she lay down on the ground. An arm curled underneath her head for a pillow, and heavy eyelids shut. Kagome breathed in deeply and enjoyed the smell of the forest and the quiet that hovered in the air.  
  
"Kagome?" Inuyasha's quiet words drifted through the dark.  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"I did miss you." Kagome raised her head from the ground and looked at Inuyasha's back. "I missed you a lot, sometimes so much that I thought I could feel what you were feeling across time." Kagome inched towards Inuyasha and sat mere inches away from him, his back still facing her.  
  
"Inuyasha, there is something I want to tell you." Inuyasha turned his head and Kagome looked up at his face. His face was covered in yellow warmth from the fire while the embers of the flames shot through the air. "You don't have to tell me anything, but I want you to know this. I had been back to my time for a few weeks and I had a vision of you. You were running through the woods and you were so sad. I felt all this guilt in my stomach and I knew that it came from you. I felt what you were feeling."  
  
Inuyasha stared wide eyed at Kagome for a moment and could not shape any words to come off of his tongue.  
  
"I just thought you should know." Kagome shrugged at the stoic expression on Inuyasha's face and then turned over to side, ready for sleep to come.  
  
It was quiet for a moment or two when Inuyasha's voice hit Kagome's ears, "Kikyo chose to move onto the next world and she wanted me to go with her. I couldn't go. I felt horrible, Kagome. I couldn't keep my promise to her." He stopped speaking and looked in Kagome's eyes for several moments, each of which seemed to be stretch out before Kagome. "That's what you felt."  
  
"You promised to protect and be with her not die with her, Inuyasha." He turned away his head away as though he were refusing to listen to the sense that was laced through her words. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."  
  
"What are you sorry for?" His tone was sharp and angry. There was no way Kagome could understand what he went through so how could she be sorry for him.  
  
"I'm just sorry that you had to lose her a second time." Kagome stopped with these words and wrestled with the one question she wanted an answer to. She tried to keep it inside, reminding herself that it was unimportant; the decision had been made and there was no second guessing it. "Inuyasha, why didn't you die with Kikyo?"  
  
He looked away from her, "I wanted to live. That's all." He mumbled and turned his face away from her, his hair blocking any view of his face and eyes.  
  
Kagome felt an instinctive urge to comfort him, an old habit that could not be repressed. She pulled herself up from the ground she had made warm with her body heat and moved next to Inuyasha. Her hand moved to his shoulder and she rested her head on his upper back very near her hand. Something within her, some innate impulse, brought her to his side to bring comfort to him just as she had several years ago whenever he had been heartbroken or worried. Slowly, Inuyasha's hand inched towards her hand, his claws and fingertips barely touching the skin on her own hand. He rested his hand on hers, his claws unconsciously caressing her hand.  
  
Fireflies moved around the forest, and for a few seconds the pair reveled in the nearness of the body next to them. Inuyasha felt the connection he had shared with Kagome flare up; almost ignite, after he had pushed it down for so many years. His hand was still placed on hers and he could feel the warmth of her hand along with a cool and rather large gem on her finger.  
  
"Kagome?" His voice was more a murmur than anything, a half-hearted question that unwillingly broke the silence. "What's this huge rock doing on your finger?"  
  
Kagome snatched her hand away and jerked her head from Inuyasha's back. She berated herself for forgetting Shiro for just a few seconds and she could not lift her head back up to look at Inuyasha squarely in the face.  
  
"Kagome? It's just a question." The hanyou laughed lightly at her skittishness. Surely she was not afraid to be close to him after all the time they had spent together in the past.  
  
"It's a ring, Inuyasha." Her words were tight and each one was pronounced with a distinct and clear air.  
  
"Of course it's a ring. I was just asking why you're wearing it." Inuyasha was confused by her change in manner and he took on a bit of his old cynical tone. "You were never big on jewelry and now you have a ring the size of the Shikon on your finger."  
  
"It's an engagement ring."  
  
"A what?" Inuyasha asked.  
  
Kagome had forgotten that the concept of an engagement ring like it was in her time did not exist in this era. There were dowries and money exchanged, but men did not give their future wives huge rings as tokens of their love and future promises.  
  
"It's a gift from my fiancée, Inuyasha. He gave it to me when he asked me to marry him." Kagome still looked directly at the ground, afraid to look up at Inuyasha.  
  
Inuyasha's face darkened and his eyes narrowed into thin slits, "Hoho." His tone was dangerous and his eyes were clouded with rage. His hand grabbed the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, as though he were about to draw it from its sheath, and squeezed until the bones in his hands were about to crack.  
  
"No, not Hojou."  
  
"Who then?"  
  
Kagome breathed deeply, "His name is Shiro. I met him at school. He loves me, Inuyasha, and he wants me to be his wife."  
  
Inuyasha stepped in front of her, and Kagome found herself staring at his feet, "And you consented?"  
  
Kagome nodded her head, numbly. In all honesty she was frightened by Inuyasha's tone and remembered how angry he used to get whenever Kouga would do as little as grab her hands.  
  
"When is the wedding?" Kagome still looked stared down at the ground. "Look at me, wench." Kagome lifted her head. "Answer me," he bellowed.  
  
Kagome's face contorted into a very nasty expression and she leapt up from the ground. Inuyasha backed off several inches, but the stone look in his eyes remained firm. "I'm getting married in three weeks! Does that bother you?" Kagome balled her fists up and screamed at him.  
  
"It doesn't bother me!" His expression was as equally as nasty.  
  
"Then why are you screaming?" Kagome yelled. Inuyasha did not bother to answer and turned to walk away. Kagome watched him for a few seconds and then red flashed before her eyes, consuming all rational thought and emotion. He had no right! No right! She ran to catch up and stepped right in front of him. His glower switched to a look of surprise.  
  
"You listen to me." Kagome hissed. "You have no right! If I want to get married and be happy, that is my choice! My choice!" She stamped her foot for emphasis. "Once upon a time all you had to do was lift your hand and I'd come running. Not anymore! I grew up, Inuyasha. I couldn't spend my life wishing things were different. I had to go home and live." Her anger began to dissipate and the words became quieter, "So don't demand me to answer you or talk to me like I'm a child. I won't stand for it. Understand?" Tears welled up in her eyes. Of all the times to cry! She wanted to make a point, stand up for herself, but now she was crying.  
  
"Feh," Inuyasha replied. He moved to step around her.  
  
Kagome stepped to the side refusing to let him pass. Inuyasha looked as though he were about to plow right through Kagome, but she put a hand up to his chest to keep him fro moving any further. "You made your choice a while back. Now I've made mine." A hot tear fell down her cheek, and her hand wilted to her side.  
  
With these words, Inuyasha's face and hands went limp. "Are you done?" His voice sounded ragged and torn.  
  
Kagome folded her arms, "I'm done." Inuyasha gave Kagome a withering glance and walked away from her, leaving Kagome standing there. She felt a new hotter anger bubble up within her; he had not listened to a word she said. One coherent thought sprouted in all the anger, Inuyasha still wore the rosary beads. He had not let her take them off of him when she had left the era five years earlier, and a malicious grin covered Kagome's face, "SIT!"  
  
Inuyasha was pressed to the ground, crying out in surprise and pain. Apparently, he had forgotten about the beads and the spell that attached him to Kagome as well. "You, you. . ." He growled from the dirt.  
  
"Until you can listen to what I say," Kagome screamed, "you can just stay there. SIT! SIT! SIT!" Pain pressed itself down all the vertebra in Inuyasha's spine, popping each one as it went along. Kagome turned and walked away from him, leaving him in the dirt.  
  
* * * * *  
  
The next two days seemed to become longer and longer, but Kagome refused to be the first to speak to Inuyasha. It should be his responsibility to apologize she told herself over and over again, and she kept trying to rationalize sitting him repeatedly.  
  
Inuyasha kept his mouth shut as well. He refused to look at Kagome, and told himself it was because he could not stand to look at such a dishonest wench. After all, Kagome could have told him immediately that she was engaged to another but she did not, and that temper of hers was ridiculous. He forgot how much it hurt to be sat by her and he did not want to risk another event like that anytime soon. All in all, it just made more sense not to speak to her at all.  
  
At the end of their third day of traveling, Kagome finally broke the silence. "Inuyasha, how many more days will it take to reach the mountain?"  
  
He turned and looked at her as though she had done something terrible by breaking the silence, "Two days." Inuyasha immediately returned to his task of building the fire and pretended as though Kagome did not exist.  
  
Kagome watched him, frustration and sadness crossing her face, "Can you look at me for just one second?"  
  
"What do you want?" he sneered.  
  
Kagome sighed, "I'm sorry I sat you. I shouldn't have done it." Inuyasha still refused to look at her. "I'm apologizing. What more should I do?" He only grated the wood together faster and harder.  
  
Kagome tapped her foot on the ground and counted to ten. Still, her patience had run out and she crossed the distance between them. Her hands grabbed his ears and pulled her head very close to hers. "You cannot ignore me for the next several days. I'm sorry for what I said, but you earned it. Now would you please put it behind you so we can at least be civil to each other." Kagome gritted her teeth and each word came out in a slow and harsh manner.  
  
Inuyasha's eyes lost the angry flash and sunk down, looking away from her, "Sorry."  
  
Kagome pitied him for a second, "I just want the two of us to be friends. I meant it when I said I missed you, and I didn't mean to make it seem like I'm unhappy to be here. I'm glad I got to see you again." She moved her hands away from his ears and rested one hand against his cheek, "We were friends once. Why can't we do that again?"  
  
Inuyasha spoke with a shaking voice, "I hurt you didn't I?"  
  
"Inuyasha?"  
  
"Not just now, but back when we were hunting for the shards. I had to hurt you a lot for you to have all that anger."  
  
Kagome wished she could deny his statement, "It was a long time ago. It's been forgotten."  
  
"You can forget just like that?"  
  
She rolled her eyes and gave him a tiny smile, "It was all five years ago, and don't forget that there were a lot of good times too." Inuyasha continued to look at her with such a heartbreaking look on his face. "Listen, I'm not sorry about anything that happened."  
  
Inuyasha grabbed her hand and took it in his and squeezed it, "Thank you, Kagome." He could feel her ring as he clasped her hand; a painful reminder that gave created a dull ache in his chest. "Why don't you go to sleep? You look tired."  
  
Kagome nodded her head and laid down on the ground. Inuyasha backed away for a moment and watched her settle down, only risking being near to her once he heard her breath coming in a steady pattern of sleep. He watched her sleep, thinking about innocent she looked when her eyes were closed. 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6  
  
For three days, the air between Kagome and Inuyasha had been uncomfortable and full of a bristling tension, but for the last day things had finally settled into an awkward normalcy. It seemed that there was an unspoken pact that Kagome's engagement would not be mentioned, but the way Inuyasha would look at her with an open mouth, very much like he were about to say something important, and then shut it again just as quickly assured Kagome that it still skimmed at the top of his thoughts.  
  
By the fourth day, right around noon, the mountain came into sight and a sense of awe came over Kagome. There was an aura, a vibration, emanating from the mountain, and Kagome wondered if it were something anyone could sense or if her miko powers were reacting to the pulse the mountain was emitting.  
  
"Inuyasha, do you feel that?"  
  
"Feel what?"  
  
Kagome frowned, "Well, I guess that answers my question. I'm getting an odd feeling from that mountain. I've ever sensed anything like it before."  
  
"Probably just your miko powers being overly sensitive. You kinda gave me the impression that you haven't used them in a while." His tone sounded almost reproachful, as though her were disgusted that she had suppressed her power.  
  
"There wasn't a need for it in my time," one of her eyebrows arched, a warning for him to back off. "But that's not what I'm getting at. The feeling isn't bad. It's just different from anything I've come into contact with before."  
  
"We'll find out what it is soon enough." With that he turned around and looked as though he wanted to continue walking, but Kagome placed her hand on his arm.  
  
"Let's rest a while. I know we're almost there, but it's going to be quite a hike up that mountain and I'd like to relax a bit before we get there."  
  
"Fine, fine." He rolled his eyes and plopped down on the ground. "Weak human," he murmured under his breath.  
  
Kagome sat down a few feet away and immediately flipped off the sandals Sango had lent her. Her feet were sore and bruised from the endless walking. She began to massage her feet and frowned at the pain that came from her weary bones.  
  
"What're you doing?" Inuyasha asked with disgust written on his face.  
  
"What does it look like I'm doing? My feet hurt. We've been walking for days, and you've got me running half of the time." There was a sliver of hurt in Kagome's voice and Inuyasha's sensitive ears did not miss it.  
  
"I'm just trying to get there and back so you can go home. Isn't that what you wanted?"  
  
Kagome breathed heavily, "We've already talked about that." Her eyes flashed dangerously.  
  
"No, you talked about that," he retorted. "You didn't let me say anything."  
  
Kagome hugged her legs to her chest and sighed. She looked at Inuyasha with wide, warm eyes, "This isn't getting us anywhere, Inuyasha. Why can't we just talk to each other like normal people? I'm tired of fighting, Inuyasha. I want to be able to talk to you like we used to."  
  
"Things can't go back to the way they used to be. Things have changed. You've changed."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kagome drew back and blinked several times in surprise.  
  
"You don't smile as much." Inuyasha sighed and met Kagome's glare head on. "You used to smile all of the time and laugh. Now your eyes are sad all of the time."  
  
She tried to shrug off the seriousness of his words, "I was a girl back then. I grew up."  
  
Inuyasha looked down at the ground, "This isn't about growing up. You used to have such a warm heart and you had a way of making people happy just by being near them. Now. . ." Inuyasha paused for a second as though he were trying to choose the right words, "you remind me of Kikyo."  
  
"Kikyo?" Kagome whispered.  
  
"She had a sad soul and now I see it reflected in you." His words were hushed as though he were ashamed of saying them.  
  
A sick feeling carved its way into Kagome's stomach, "Well, you always considered me a pale imitation of her so I guess you think I'm finally worthy of having her soul." Her words were biting and she did not care if they hurt him; she hoped they did.  
  
Inuyasha jumped back at her words and his mouth dropped open. Surely, she did not think that he considered her a pale copy of Kikyo. Sure, at first she had reminded him so much of Kikyo, her face, the powers she held, and the similar mannerisms. But as time went on, the differences became more and more apparent.  
  
Kikyo had been a melancholy soul, a distant goddess that had stepped off of a pedestal to love him. Even in her happiest moments, a guarded expression covered her face and there was so little she allowed herself to feel and do. She had been intelligent and had a beauty that was both intoxicating and cold, a beauty sharp enough to cut oneself upon. Kikyo was deep, powerful, and seemingly perfect, a man's dream woman. He had been stunned when he realized that she returned his love and wanted to spend forever worshipping her and proving his worth to her.  
  
Kagome had been all too human; she laughed, she cried, she screamed. She wore her emotions on her sleeves, threw them all over the place, and always said the first thing that popped into her mind. Kagome possessed a feet of clay and tripped over them all the time, but there was something charming in her flaws and endearing about her displays of anger, passion, and kindness. She spread happiness and compassion more often than her intense flares of anger splashed to the surface. At times, he bated her on purpose, trying to bring her anger to the surface. It always brought an attractive flush to her face. He felt so comfortable with her and could not forget all the wounds she treated, all the times she softened his hard heart, and how she taught him to trust. Her looks were similar to Kikyo's, but even those were more innocent, less knowing. Her face was naïve, full of silvery warmth. Yes, Kikyo and Kagome were as different as night and day.  
  
Inuyasha's amber gaze was wide, "I never thought anything like that."  
  
"Sorry, Inuyasha. I shouldn't have said that. Forget I said anything." Kagome rocked onto her knees, preparing to stand up, "Let's keep moving." It was as if all their fights came to the same conclusion, and she was so tired of fighting, of walking endlessly, of being in the warring states era. The thought of Shiro and his protective arms holding her surfaced and became more appealing with each passing minute.  
  
Inuyasha grabbed her arm before she could stand, "Kagome, you lack nothing." His voice was deep, and made all thought of Shiro disappear. "I didn't mean to make you angry. It's just that you don't seem like yourself."  
  
"Life hasn't been easy." Kagome sighed and looked away.  
  
Inuyasha brought his hand back to his body, "What happened? You haven't told me anything about your life. I want to know."  
  
She could not tell him that she had been homesick for her friends of this time, for the young kitsune she considered as dear as a child of her own, and for him. She could not say that she had missed him so much that it squeezed her heart till she thought it would not have enough energy to take another beat. There were plenty of words to tell him what he had wanted to know, but she was not willing to share them.  
  
He looked into her eyes, past her eyes, and tried to see the depth of her answer there. The large brown eyes shook with emotion, the hurt and the pain of years past brimming to the edges.  
  
"It's just been hard. I saw a lot of things in this time, too much evil and darkness to just fit back into my world. It took a long time before I felt comfortable again." These words were the truth, but words that skirted away from the harshest truth. She had to get used to a life without him.  
  
"I'm sorry. I wish it had been easier for you."  
  
"I've managed. I've made a place for myself again. I'm about to be accepted into graduate school, I make good grades, and I have friends. What more could I ask for?"  
  
Inuyasha shrugged his shoulder as though he did not know the answer. He paused a moment and looked at her with a sober face, "Did it really bother you so much that I compared you to Kikyo?"  
  
The swift change in subject took her by surprise. She felt as though she had just suffered from whiplash, being jerked so quickly back into a sensitive subject. "Let's just say it's still a touchy subject."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Why?" Kagome gave a short, bitter laugh. "She hated me, Inuyasha. Kikyo treated me as nothing more than a nuisance, something that stood in the way of you and her. She thought I was a disgrace to her name." Kagome choked on the next word, "She thought I was a disgrace to you.  
  
"You were upset that Kikyo wasn't more accepting of you?" Inuyasha's eyes widened in surprise, he had always assumed the animosity between Kagome and Kikyo was because of him.  
  
Kagome frowned, "That was a part of it, but there was a lot more to it than that."  
  
Inuyasha crossed his legs and folded his arms, "Go on."  
  
"I went through my life just being me until I came here, and then all the sudden I was a reincarnation. I wasn't myself anymore. I was Kikyo reborn. Then I had to wonder if I liked the same things she did or if my feeling were just her feelings. I lost myself the day I came here, and everyone would say how much I looked like her or how I had the same powers as her. But, I wasn't as good as she was. Never once was I as powerful, or as smart, or brave. All I could do was detect the shards or shoot an arrow every now and then." She took a breath, and let the thoughts that she had kept hidden for so long bubble up, "And then there was you. I know you never meant to, but every time she came around it was like I was invisible, like I didn't matter."  
  
Kagome began to play with the long hem of her skirt, and Inuyasha noted that her face looked absolutely miserable. He knew how she hated to say bad things about anyone or say things that would hurt, but raised her head and looked him directly in the eye, "You were always so gentle with her, Inuyasha, and so rough with me." There were tremors in her voice from the weight of the memory, but it felt good to set all the thoughts free from her mind.  
  
Memories came to Inuyasha, all the times he had yelled at her and insulted her, and the same guilt he felt when she had yelled for him to sit a few days ago came back. "I'm so sorry, Kagome. I know that I made things really hard for you and took you for granted. I just. . . I'm sorry." He looked away from her.  
  
Kagome smiled gently, "I didn't say all those things to make you feel bad. You asked and I needed to get it off my chest." Inuyasha looked up, her words an encouragement, "I'm glad they've been said. It's good to know that we can still talk."  
  
He smiled, "Me too."  
  
Kagome broke out into a grin at his response, "Now tell me what's happened around here. I know some things from talking to Sango, but I don't know everything. Tell me why you and Miroku travel around to protect humans? That's a far cry from your old attitude concerning anything mortal." She teased him gently and hoped that the last remains of tension between them would dissipate.  
  
"It's no big deal." He brushed her words off. "I just started thinking about my father. He had a high regard for humans from what Myoga told me and he wanted humans and demons not to fear one another. I'm just carrying on his legacy, and when it's all said and done, I'm half human."  
  
"It's nice to see you acknowledging your human side."  
  
Inuyasha rolled his eyes, "Feh. It's no bid deal, you sentimental wench."  
  
Kagome smiled, "Glad to see you haven't changed too much. Now tell me about Kouga. I've always wondered what happened to him after I left.  
  
There was a glitter in Kagome's eye and an excitement in her words he did not like. Inuyasha growled, "The wimpy wolf is still around."  
  
"Well, what happened to him?"  
  
"He kept snooping around the village for the first few months after you left. He wouldn't believe us when he said you were gone. He moped around for an age, but he eventually gave up and when back to his tribe right after I finally showed him who was the strongest."  
  
"You had a fight with Kouga."  
  
An arrogant smirk crept into Inuyasha's face, "Yep."  
  
"Well, apparently you beat him but not enough to do any real damage." The smirk annoyed Kagome; she had hoped that the two would have put aside there differences after she was no longer in the picture.  
  
Inuyasha's smile vanished, "Shut up."  
  
Kagome put a hand to her mouth to stifle the giggle that came from the pit of her stomach. "I always regretted not being able to say goodbye to Kouga. He respected and cared for me more than almost anyone I can think of."  
  
Inuyasha curled his fist up and growled, "The wolf did just fine without you. He and Ayame mated about a year ago."  
  
Kagome smiled at the small vein that was popping out of Inuyasha's neck, "I'm glad. Kouga deserves to be happy." A wicked gleam popped into Kagome's eye, "It's just too bad that he waited four years to marry Ayame. To think that he pined for me for that long." Her tone had a musical lilt to it and went straight to Inuyasha's brain.  
  
"Well, why don't you go get Kouga to take you the rest of the way up the mountain?"  
  
Kagome moved closer to Inuyasha and patted his head, "Nah, I think you'll do."  
  
She smiled, and Inuyasha looked up at her in annoyance, a colorful word dancing at the end of his tongue, but he could not help but notice the smile on her face. It was the same smile she had given him as a teenage girl, and it warmed his heart to see it.  
  
All thoughts of Kouga went up in smoke, "It's good to see you smile and laugh again."  
  
"It feels good," she murmured.  
  
For an odd reason, Inuyasha's face sobered quickly. "Hey Kagome, will the man who wants to marry you make you laugh?" There was a catch in his voice, and he bent his head away, at an odd angle.  
  
"Shiro?" she asked.  
  
"I don't care what his name is. Will he make you happy?" His tone was raspy and harsh, as though the words had cut slices through his lungs.  
  
Kagome tried to smile, "He makes me happy."  
  
"And you love him?" Inuyasha looked up; his amber eyes clear with golden edges near his iris.  
  
Kagome met his gaze, but found her tongue useless. She shook her head up and down rapidly instead, hoping that the answer would satisfy him.  
  
"Then that's all that matter."  
  
* * * * * * * *  
  
It was early the next morning before she and Inuyasha made it to the base of the mountain and began to scale its heights. The gentle hum vibrated in Kagome's eardrum the higher she climbed up the mountain, and the air around her made the hairs on her arm stand on end. The atmosphere became thicker and thicker, not an unpleasant thickness, but rather a warmth and a calming that was slowly enveloping her.  
  
She yelled towards Inuyasha, "Hey, Inuyasha! Do you hear that noise?"  
  
He turned around for a moment and looked at her, "I don't hear anything, Kagome, but the air is changing. There an odd smell to it."  
  
"What does it smell like?"  
  
"Something sweet, but it's nothing I've ever smelled before." He watched Kagome take another step up the side of the mountain and saw her foot slip on some moss at the base of a tree. Inuyasha walked a few slippery steps down towards Kagome and held his hand out for her, "You're so clumsy. Take my hand."  
  
Kagome frowned but placed her hand in his, "Thanks."  
  
Inuyasha steadied her and then watched her feet slip a second time on the slick ground that was still wet with the morning dew. Inuyasha frowned, "Just get on my back, wench. You're slowing us down."  
  
Kagome's breath came in sharply with the thought of being so close to him again just like she had years before. She had never told Inuyasha how intimate riding his back had been to her. In the past, he rarely offered to let anyone but Kagome ride on his back, and even though he made it seem like a burden to carry her, she knew that he liked her dependency upon him. He had liked being close to her as well. She stared at him with a sober look on her face that made his stomach tingle, "Just get on my back." He tone was sharp and demanding, but as long as she quit looking at him like that he did not care. Kagome kept making him feel nervous, and suddenly words were more difficult to string into sentences and he felt awkward. Luckily, Kagome complied with his order and hopped onto his back without any more looks that twisted his stomach into knots.  
  
"Thank you, Inuyasha," she spoke into her ear, once again sending an electric pulse through his head.  
  
Their pace increased dramatically and they were making their way up the mountain very quickly. Kagome soon fell asleep with her head resting on Inuyasha's shoulder, being lulled to sleep by the constant climbing and the warm air that made her feel more and more secure with every step Inuyasha took. Kagome slept soundly until her eyelids suddenly seemed to be bathed in an intense light and they snapped open of their own accord. The light did not flash, but was steady and warm, and for a split second Kagome thought she might be consumed by the light and taken into another world, another time. The light began to dim or either her eyes became accustomed to the brightness, and there was a figure standing a few feet ahead.  
  
It was a woman with long dark hair and eyes an intense violet. She wore a dress that was plain in its design, but the color the dress, a plum, was so deep that Kagome believed that she had never seen this particular shade of purple in her entire life. There was a thin belt that rested loosely around her waist, a belt that looked to be woven together from a golden shimmering thread. She carried a white staff in her hand and it looked thinner than a wooden staff, but stronger and sturdier. The oddest thing about her was the wings that were clearly emanating from the woman. They were small, white, and seemed to have a lavender shade mixed in amongst the feathers.  
  
She regarded Kagome and Inuyasha with an indifferent air, "You have come."  
  
"Yeah, we're here," Inuyasha growled. "And who are you?" He flexed his claws and all the joints in his hands cracked loudly.  
  
"I am the guardian," she answered, but looked away from Inuyasha and shifted her eyes to Kagome.  
  
"The guardian of what?" Inuyasha snarled at the woman.  
  
The woman continued to stare at Kagome, "The guardian of the east side of this mountain." She stepped towards Kagome, ignoring Inuyasha completely, "You are the one whose name has been whispered among my brethren." The woman reached out an open hand and touched Kagome's cheek.  
  
In one swift movement, Inuyasha appeared next to Kagome's side and inserted himself between Kagome and the woman. "Who are you and what do you want with her?"  
  
The woman squinted her eyes and scanned Inuyasha with a sharp violet glare, "You are the son of man and son of demon." A growl came from Inuyasha's chest and his hand gripped the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, wanting nothing more to take the sword to the woman's throat and make her give the answers he wanted. "I can see that you have received the dreams as well."  
  
She stepped further away and it seemed to Kagome that a look of resolution was now etched upon the woman's face. Until now Kagome was in awe and could not find her voice. There was a purity that poured off of this woman and a power radiated from her; all of it seemed to drip from the woman's sides and pierced Kagome with its intensity, right to the pit of her stomach.  
  
Kagome found her voice through the vaporous power that hung in the air, "Why am I here?" It was a desperate question, a plea for understanding.  
  
"It is not my knowledge to impart, but follow me child and you will know the answers you are seeking." The woman turned and walked up the mountain, never once looking back to see if the strange creatures that now occupied her mountain were following.  
  
Inuyasha's patience reached its limits, and he gave Kagome a questioning look.  
  
Kagome sighed, "Go home, Inuyasha. You don't have to stay." She followed in the path of the woman half expecting Inuyasha to abandon her. Instead, he rushed up from behind and grabbed Kagome's hand, holding it firmly in his own.  
  
"I'm not leaving you." He moved even closer to her side. "I don't like the feeling of this place. Don't think that I'm letting you wander around here alone, you idiot!"  
  
Kagome could only manage a weak smile before Inuyasha moved upwards on the mountain. He tugged on her and pulled her along him, trying to keep up with the winged woman that was getting further and further ahead of them. The woman stopped for one moment and turned around, her staff beginning to glow with an eerie light now that dusk was setting itself upon the world, "Keep up."  
  
They followed her up a mossy path until an inky darkness covered the sky and her staff glowed with a great intensity. The woman held it over her head and it lit not only the path ahead, but also the sides of the woods. The trees that surrounded them were white and twisted as though there were an old magic twisted into the wood. Kagome relaxed with the scenery around her and the warm feel of Inuyasha's hand holding hers, but Inuyasha remained tense and rigid. Something in the air was foreign and discomforting, and he sensed that once he walked up this mountain his life would change and he would not have the power to change it back.  
  
The woman quit walking once she came to two trees that had seemed to lean and arch into one another. The trunks created a small doorway of sorts, and she lifted her staff to the wood. Her hands gripped the rod and she twisted it sideways and held it in both hands. She spoke softly in a tongue that even Inuyasha had not come across before, but when she had finished the entire staff began to radiate a sharp light. The light spread to the trees until every branch twig on them was illuminated and the light pulsed into the sky.  
  
The woman drew the staff away from the tree and looked to Inuyasha and Kagome, "You may pass."  
  
Kagome felt a confidence well up within her and she walked through the trees without waiting for Inuyasha to walk through with her. Inuyasha watched her walk through the two trees, shocked that she had not hesitated or at least waited for her to cross through with him. For a moment, he felt lonely standing there without her by his side, but the emotion quickly turned to shock once he realized that Kagome had disappeared behind the trees.  
  
"Kagome!" He screamed.  
  
The woman only looked at him without expression, "Are you going to pass through our borders with the girl or will you stay?" Inuyasha hesitated. He held no trust for this woman. "The choice is yours." Inuyasha stared at her for only a second, watching her black hair whip around her face, before he rushed through the trees.  
  
"Kagome," he asked hesitantly, moving his head wildly looking for her.  
  
"I'm here." She looked at him with wide eyes, "I was just waiting for you to come through."  
  
"I want to know what in the world is going on here," he snarled. "We go on a wild goose chase, and then run into a woman who won't tell us anything, and then you disappeared after going through those trees."  
  
Kagome looked around at her surroundings in awe, "Can't you see, Inuyasha? Can't you feel it? This is where we're supposed to be." There was only doubt in Inuyasha's face. "We've crossed the border between their land and your land." Kagome smiled sweetly at Inuyasha's confusion, "It's probably my miko powers, but I just know that the figure in our dreams is not too far off."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Positive. Who ever the figure is, he is here." Kagome had a look of grim resolution in her eyes and would have turned to walk if the air around her had not warped. She took several steps backwards and a man appeared behind her, a set of wings sprouting from his back.  
  
The man grabbed Kagome's arms and twisted her around. He pulled her close to his face and his black eyes studied her carefully. "You must be someone important for the guardian to allow you to pass."  
  
"Let her go," Inuyasha commanded. The Tetsusaiga was already transformed and waiting to slice the neck of the strange man that held Kagome. "Let her go," he repeated, "unless you have some kind of death wish."  
  
"Stop," Kagome whispered. "He's like the figure in my dreams." She reached up and touched his face. "You're not the figure I saw in the dreams, but you are the one who will take me to him."  
  
The man's face softened, "Your power is great, young one. That is why you have been allowed admittance to this place." He ran a hand through her hair, "You are the one we have been seeking. I will take you to Innis."  
  
"Innis?" Kagome asked, her mouth frowning.  
  
"She is the one you must speak with." The man swept Kagome up into his arms and stretched his wings out to their full span. His gaze moved to Inuyasha, "You shall follow me on the ground."  
  
Inuyasha growled and watched the man's hands as they held Kagome, swearing that if he saw the slightest discomfort upon Kagome's face that he would slice the man from head to toe. The man wings flapped once and then twice, lifting him up into the air. The man held Kagome tighter as he rose through the white trees that seemed to cover the mountain.  
  
A feeling of security washed over Kagome, much like the feeling she had when her mother would cover her with a warm blanket as a child. Up in the warm air, with this winged man made her believe that no bad thing could happen on this mountain. Whatever the cause of her calling to this mountain, the people who inhabited this place had a purpose for her, a good noble purpose that would do her no harm.  
  
Inuyasha sped, his feet hitting the ground at an incredible pace, trying to keep up with the flying man. Kagome appeared to be safe, but he still had an ominous feeling in his gut while he dodged the number of white trees that covered the mountain.  
  
Ten minutes had passed before the man spread out his wings, catching a small patch of air, and drifted down to the ground. Kagome looked down and saw many figures on the ground, and every figure had a pair of wings upon its back. Their faces were looking up, but the only thing Kagome could see was the brightness of their eyes, their penetrating glares.  
  
Inuyasha had already come to a halt, a hand on the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, but he was shocked to see multiple people standing as though they were waiting for his and Kagome's arrival. He looked up as well to see the winged man land gently and release Kagome. There was a peaceful expression upon her face and her eyelids drooped just a bit over her large brown eyes. She looked content to be here among these people and for a second it seemed as though she had forgotten him all together.  
  
He ran to her and stood next to her, his shoulder pulled back and his chest sticking out, "Are you okay?"  
  
"I'm fine." She turned to the man, "Will you take me to see Innis as you promised?  
  
"It's the cave that is straight ahead of you." He ignored Inuyasha and placed both of his hands on Kagome's cheeks and looked down at her, "Bless you for answering the call, child. Go now."  
  
She beamed in return and turned her back on both he and Inuyasha. Inuyasha snapped back in surprise and held his hand out to her, "Kagome, wait!" Kagome turned around, but appeared to be in a trance. She stared at him with almost no sign of recognition and for a brief moment Inuyasha thought that had no memory of him.  
  
A young girl with wings moved to Inuyasha's side and her fingers grazed the side of his arms with a feathery touch, "No, son of man, son of demon. You are to stay. Innis's words are meant only for the girl." Her voice was magical, and Inuyasha stared down at the yellow haired girl with emerald eyes. She waved her small hand in front of his eyes. Suddenly, Inuyasha felt himself pressed to the ground in a sitting position and it felt as though two hands were pressing on his shoulders, keeping him from rising. "I mean you no harm," the girl's lyrical voice said, "but you must wait. She will return soon." Inuyasha froze, with visions and images circling in front of his eyes. He made no more fuss.  
  
Kagome turned and walked onward about a hundred feet to the cave and she stepped inside. It was dim only for a moment, but then a glow erupted with the sweep of a hand. A woman moved her hand gracefully through the air, a long red sleeve following behind. This woman was seated, but she was clearly tall, and she lifted her chin when Kagome took a step forward. The light coming from the woman's hand formed into a golden ball that hovered in the air right above Kagome's head and finally softened to a velvety light.  
  
"You are the girl that has been prophesied." The woman's words were direct and her voice was commanding, the voice of royalty. "Make yourself comfortable."  
  
Kagome settled on the floor of the cave. The woman continued to stare at her. Her eyes were a smoky gray and clouded as they scanned Kagome. She wore a deep red dress with gold lacing that ribbed the dress. Her skin was a silky white and her black hair provided a stark contrast to the skin. It was worn completely down and flowed along the sides of her face. It looked more like a waterfall of ink as it fell, layered upon the cave floor. Her wings were tucked in, but they were of the same ivory as her skin.  
  
"I have long imagined what you would look like, daughter of man. I am honored to have you within our boundaries."  
  
Kagome's eyebrows rose up in slight fear at the presence the woman possessed, "Why am I here?"  
  
"You are the receiver of the dreams. It was your fate to come here and learn you purpose."  
  
"My purpose?" Kagome frowned in an intense confusion. She wished the woman would quit speaking in riddles.  
  
"We watched you when you came to this era and sensed your power. My brethren and I have long known of your purpose and wondered when the time would come for the uniting to pass."  
  
Kagome bit her lip, "Uniting? What are you talking about?" She felt a panic come to her throat. It unnerved her to think that she had been watched. "How could you watch me if you said you wondered what I looked like?"  
  
The woman raised a thin hand to silence her, "I will explain." She moved her hand back to her lap, "Many eras ago my kindred segregated ourselves from the race of man and the race of the demons. We could not understand the hatred and love for power that came from the hearts of demon and man. No longer could we stomach the blood that the two races spilled amongst themselves. We retreated so we would no longer have to see it, but we have kept an eye open upon the two races to see if they would ever abandon their evil ways. They never did so we have continued to isolate ourselves."  
  
"I still don't understand."  
  
"Patience, daughter of man. We have regretted out abandonment of the other two races, but still we have inhabited this mountain until our memory has become merely a legend in the eyes of man and demons. However, the time has come in which there shall be a blurring of the races, a uniting if you will. In the prophecy of my kindred, there was a mentioning that the time would come when the separation of the races would be mended by a mixing of the blood. One day an angel would choose a companion whose blood was different from his, a companion that is not among the race of the angels."  
  
"You mean that an angel will choose me to be his bride?" Kagome began to tremble. This was too much. First to be plagued with dreams for years and to only have it end in being told that you would be forced to marry a stranger.  
  
"You have misunderstood. You are not to be the bride of the angel, but you do serve the same purpose in the uniting as I. Kagome, you will be the mother of the child that will be part of the uniting."  
  
Kagome's became rigid, "What?"  
  
"I have used your name as a sign of respect. We hold the same station, Kagome. You will give birth to a daughter and that child will be chosen by my son to be his beloved."  
  
"How is that possible? I'm not even married yet? And how will your son be able to come through time to get my child?"  
  
"Go through time?" For the first time, the woman looked confused.  
  
"I'm from an era in the future."  
  
"This we know, but the prophecies say that your child will be born within this era. The young man that accompanied you to this mountain will be the father for within him the blood of both man and demon runs."  
  
All the breath came out of Kagome, "Inuyasha?"  
  
"It must be him, for your child must have the blood of a demon and a human if my son's angel blood is to completely mix. In order for the uniting to happen, the blood of a demon, human, and angel will be mixed. Your child and my son shall give birth to the first child to contain the blood of all three races."  
  
"But it doesn't make sense." Kagome felt her mouth run dry and she silently pleaded for some sense of reality to come back into her life. "Inuyasha is only a half demon. If we had a child it would only be a quarter demon."  
  
"The quantity does not matter, only that it is present." The woman pushed an errant strand of hair back into place.  
  
"But why me?"  
  
"You are a miko. You possess a vast amount of power, power that has only been manifested completely upon one occasion, but an amazing power just the same. You have passed through time, child. Can you not see that you are no ordinary mortal?"  
  
"But I'm just a reincarnation. Why not Kikyo? She was much more powerful than I. Why not she and Inuyasha? Kikyo was the one with Inuyasha's heart."  
  
The woman reached out and touched Kagome's cheek and look of sympathy in her clouded eyes, "You have been hurt greatly by this knowledge, but you are mistaken. You are Kikyo's superior."  
  
"How?" Kagome's voice shook.  
  
"Powerful though she was, Kikyo's powers waned as her love for Inuyasha grew. Her heart could not possess both. You however, you powers grew as your love for Inuyasha expanded." The woman lips took on a faint trace of a smile, "And Kikyo never once was able to travel through time."  
  
"But that was just the Shikon no Tama."  
  
"No, Kagome. That was you." The woman withdrew her hand and rested it upon her other in her lap.  
  
"But how do you know all this?"  
  
"I told you that we had been watching you. We could not see you, but we could see your heart and soul. We have long watched both your and Inuyasha's souls."  
  
"But I can't marry Inuyasha. I'm promised to another. I'm marrying a man that I care for very much. I've already agreed to be the mother of his children." Kagome waved her ring in front of the woman, "This is a symbol of my promise to him."  
  
The woman shook her head, "Perhaps, I am wrong. The future is not set in stone. The choice is yours."  
  
A salty wetness to Kagome's eyes, "I can't marry Inuyasha. I just can't." She trembled.  
  
"Why such a firm resolve?" The corner of the woman's eyes crinkled and her dynamic eyes penetrated Kagome's insides, right down to her marrow.  
  
"I don't have his heart." A tear fell down her cheek. "His heart in not mine to have; it was promised to another."  
  
"Kagome, you are a wise child. You will make the decision that is correct for you. But my son has a gift for you." The woman raised her hand, and immediately diminutive woman came with a sleeping child in her arms. She placed the child in Innis's waiting arms. Innis looked at the sleeping child tenderly. He had a head full of damp brown curls. He looked to be no more than three and he had an adorable face.  
  
The woman rested the sleeping child in her lap and closed her eyes and without warning an image cemented its way into Kagome's brain. There was a vivid image of a smiling girl, a girl that could be no more that Kagome's own age. She stood with a smile on her face, long white hair, and with a pair of lovely amber eyes. Her ears were just like a human's, but pointed at the tips as though she were an elf. She wore a white dress that covered one shoulder and the top of it came across her chest and tucked just underneath the pit of her arm. The silver hair was pulled away from her face, with half of it typed back and half of it remaining down. The girl's smile looked very soft and tender, full of emotion, and it seemed very familiar to Kagome. This girl was tall and slender. Kagome's breath caught at the sight of this girl and an understanding filled her. In this girl, Kagome could see her own smile, jaw line, and hands.  
  
Kagome's mouth opened and she could not speak. Tears now fell from her eyes with force and she tried to blink them away. Finally the words came, "So you were the one with the power to send me the dreams through time?"  
  
"No." The woman shook her head. "My son sent you the dreams." The child remained still, his thumb resting in his mouth. "It was his future self that you saw. It was he that called you here."  
  
"He did all this? But he's just a child. I've been having these dreams for years."  
  
"My brethren and I age differently, but it was indeed he that sent you the vision. After all, it will be his child that has the combined blood of the three races. It will be his child that shall be the beginning of the uniting."  
  
With the back of her hand, Kagome wiped away the last of her tears, "Are you done?"  
  
"Yes, the time has come for you to leave. My message is finished."  
  
Kagome tried to smile, but she felt more tears welling up within her, "Thank you." She turned and walked out of the cave.  
  
"Remember my words, Kagome." The woman kissed her child on the head and closed her eyes as her role as the messenger ended.  
  
Kagome walked very quickly to where Inuyasha sat and frowned at him. He seemed to be frozen and unmoving. "Oh, stop it. Let's get out of here." She grabbed his hand and yanked him up from the ground rather forcefully. The pressure on Inuyasha's shoulders disappeared and he snapped back to life with her yank.  
  
He blinked several times and looked around, very much confused, "What's going on?"  
  
"We're leaving?"  
  
"About time!" He snarled. "I'll be glad to get out of this nuthouse.  
  
He and Kagome were alone now with the exception of the young angel that had hypnotized him; she remained looking at the both of them. Apparently the rest of the angels had drifted away during Kagome's conversation with Innis.  
  
"What're you looking at?" Inuyasha snapped at the girl. "You're the one who froze me aren't you?" He began cracking his knuckles as an idle threat.  
  
The young angel only continued to stare, "I hope you can make sense of what you have seen. It was my gift to you." She spread her wings and then flew up into the sky.  
  
Kagome paid that girl little attention and began walking away from the cave. Inuyasha stared at her back, wondering why she was so intent on leaving.  
  
"Kagome, what happened back there?" He ran to her side, bewildered by her behavior.  
  
"Nothing," she scowled.  
  
"Well, obviously something happened."  
  
"I don't want to talk about it!" She continued walking.  
  
"Well, I'd like to hear about it. It involves me too."  
  
"SIT." The word erupted from her mouth, but she kept on walking not even bothering to acknowledge Inuyasha's shouting.  
  
He peeled himself up from the ground once the spell wore off and ran to her. He stepped directly in front of her and held his hand out. "What happened? You've been crying I can smell it, and your eyes are all bloodshot. Did they do anything to you?" His voice tried to suppress his anger; if they had done anything to her he'd make them regret it.  
  
"No, they didn't do anything." Kagome's shoulders slumped. It seemed like her strength had drained out of away. "Calm down, Inuyasha. Let's just go back to the village." She stepped to the side and walked slowly past him.  
  
"Why won't you talk to me? Please, Kagome?" He was begging, all his energy invested in finding out what was wrong with her.  
  
"Nothing that I have to worry about. Now let's go." Her last words were screeched into his sensitive ears.  
  
He walked next to her, keeping his tongue silent but his eyes watchful, "Do you want to ride on my back to get home faster?" He hoped she would take this as a peace offering.  
  
"Not right now." She looked out, towards the woods, hoping to get away from the mountain and away from Inuyasha. Right now all she wanted was to get back to her own time and into the waiting arms of Shiro.  
  
* I can only apologize to all the readers for how long it has taken me to get this chapter out. I'm currently in graduate school and my time is very limited. Plus, this story is becoming more difficult to write the further along I go with it. I felt as though the last few chapters were rushed and I couldn't stand putting out another mediocre chapter. I hate when I cannot seem to write a decent sentence and it's unfair for all of you to read my random garbage that I've been spitting out lately. All that said, I hope that I haven't lost all of my faithful readers during my long hiatus. I have loved receiving your feedback and thank you for every post I have received. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it when even one person reads my ramblings. So please enjoy this part of the story and if it so moves you to do so then review please! 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7  
  
Saying goodbye is all we know of heaven,  
And all we need of hell.  
Emily Dickinson  
  
************************************************************************  
  
You were always so gentle with her, Inuyasha, and so rough with me.  
  
Those had been Kagome's words. She looked so vulnerable when the words had fallen from a trembling chin and mouth. Kagome's entire confession had shaken Inuyasha, and it was as though certain memories he had dismissed were being reexamined with a dull light flickering down upon them.  
  
Memories of him calling her names, yelling at Kagome for all of her inadequacies, never recognizing her fears and worries; they all tore through his mind, and oddly enough once there, they were still. Still and calm, but heavy.  
  
He watched her now; watched every move, twitch, or exhale of breath. She looked broken. Whatever had happened on that mountain had splintered her and just when he had begun to see cracks in the armor she had resurrected around herself. Now, Kagome looked pale, thin, much like an old relic of what she had been.  
  
She was quiet, unbearably quiet. They were not far from the village, and it had only taken three days, but she had pushed for them to move quickly. Once they made it to the base of the mountain, a torrential downpour began. The rain was bone cold and it soaked into Kagome's skin, but still she moved through the deep puddles, the mud, and the cold. Being soaked up to her knees did not matter if she could make it home and forget about the things revealed to her on the angel's mountain.  
  
Inuyasha wanted to grab her by the arms and shake her. She was so frustrating! He had spent the trip home, not only soaked, but pleading with her to tell him what had happened. Each time he asked, he received a sit, but it was a battle of wills and he had more than enough stubbornness to equal all of Kagome's determination. But thus far, it had been a stalemate.  
  
"Kagome, why don't we stop here for the night?"  
  
She looked at him and shook her head, "Let's keep moving. We'll get to the village by morning if we keep walking." Kagome turned her head away, giving him a half view of her face.  
  
Inuyasha curled his fists up and felt like taking a swing at something. Anything would suffice. She refused to look at him, she refused to speak to him, and she refused to acknowledge that he was there unless it was to tell him to keep up with her. He turned away from her, hoping to hide his desperation.  
  
"What are you going to do when we get back to the village?" His voice shook, despite efforts to keep it steady.  
  
Kagome whipped her head around and stared at Inuyasha. She bit her lip, "I promised Shippo I'd stay for a while and spend some time with him, but then I guess I'm going home."  
  
Inuyasha felt his vision blur, and the dull ache that had been a constant presence the past few days became sharp as it began to carve away his insides. He reasoned quickly that he should not be surprised by the loss. Loss was something he knew well, and he watched her, rain dripping from her face and a haunted look in her eyes, drift away from him. She was like smoke, slipping right through his fingers, and he was being forced to sit idly by and watch her dissipate.  
  
Kagome knew he was worried; it was etched all through his body language, but her thoughts were preoccupied. Innis's words were surging through her head, and she twisted those words in her mind, trying to get them to make a shred of sense. She looked at them from every angle possible and once all of those routes were explored she found new perspectives to view the words. The only thing she received from her hours of contemplation was a terrible pressure in the back of her temples.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Kagome stood at the door of the hut, soaked and shivering from the rain that pelted down upon her. She raised her fist and hit the wood with the palm of her fist. It was sodden and wet, having soaked up the fat drops from the rainstorm. Inuyasha stood passively, hands limp at his sides and eyes cast downwards occasionally looking up, and delivered Kagome back to the hut.  
  
A glimmer of light came from the door as Taru slid it open, "Kagome!" He slightly mispronounced her name, but rushed at her with the excited arms of a three year old, disregarding her wet clothes. "I knew you come back!"  
  
"Taru, hug Kagome inside!" Sango grabbed her boy just before he could reach Kagome and pulled him back. "Do you want to catch a cold?" She reproached him but her tone was so gentle it lulled the boy's enthusiasm. Taru wriggled out of Sango's grasp enough to stretch his open hand out to Kagome. Kagome took the tiny hand in her own, and looked at him with a hesitant grin. She felt a warm sensation in her heart for this little child that had become so taken with her.  
  
Taru pulled Kagome's hand and stuck his tongue through his mouth as though he were working very hard to get her inside. Once Kagome followed, Taru looked outside and brightened once he recognized Inuyasha's dark form.  
  
"Come in, Yasha!" Kagome turned her head and looked at Inuyasha's slumped body. She brought her hand to her mouth and chewed on her nail, but Taru raised his arms up and waited for Inuyasha to come and lift him up. He expected Inuyasha to come in and lift him over his shoulders as he always did, but Inuyasha did not come. He gave him a half smile and then looked at Kagome with regretful eyes. Sango sat back and squinted her eyes in bewilderment.  
  
"I can't come in, Taru. Not right now." Inuyasha turned; throwing a miserable expression at the three huddled by the door, and then ran into the woods.  
  
Sango turned to Miroku and frowned, "Miroku, something is wrong. Go after Inuyasha."  
  
Miroku rolled his eyes, "Yes, dear." He got up from his rather comfortable position on the floor and walked to the door. He kissed Sango's temple and then patted Taru's head only before giving Kagome a reassuring smile, "I'll take care of it."  
  
Miroku grinned to himself ruefully as he stepped into the rain, "That woman has me wrapped around her finger."  
  
Sango watched Miroku disappear into the dark night, lowered Taru to his feet, and frowned, "Kagome, what happened?"  
  
Taru ran to the corner that Shippo was sitting and staring at Sango and Kagome with wide eyes. Taru hopped onto his lap. "Whatever happened I bet it's Inuyasha's fault," Shippo mumbled under his breath.  
  
Kagome's lower lip trembled before her entire face crumbled, "Oh, Sango." She threw both arms around Sango and leaned her forehead against her friend's shoulder. Sango patted the back of Kagome's head, caressing Kagome's hair.  
  
"Don't cry. Let's go speak in private." Sango spoke to her in the same voice usually reserved for Taru when he would skin his knee. Kagome cried in the same way her child did, crying as though her entire world had fallen apart.  
  
Sango ushered Kagome into her bedroom and sat her down on the ground. "I'm going to get you out of those wet clothes. Everything will seem a little better once you're warm." She knelt down and pulled a warm kimono from her chest. She glanced up at Kagome, watching her stare into nothingness with water trimming her eyelashes. "Kagome, raise you hands." Kagome obeyed much like a docile child while Sango stripped her of the wet clothing and dropped it in the corner.  
  
Soon, Kagome was dressed in a plain but warm brown kimono. She pooled her cloud of vague thoughts enough to realize how nice it was to be warm, but she still stared at Sango with glazed eyes.  
  
"Kagome," Sango shook her shoulders gently and then sat down awkwardly, trying to find her balance with a swollen belly, "tell me what's wrong. What happened between you and Inuyasha?"  
  
Kagome tried to focus her eyes and soon Sango's swimming form, due to the water that stung her eyes, lost its hazy edges. All she could clearly make out was Sango's tightened and worried face.  
  
"Sango, I. . ." Kagome tried to begin but found her tongue thick with a jumble of words.  
  
Sango rested her warm hand on Kagome's shoulder, "Take your time. I'll be here." A large sob came unbidden from deep within Kagome's chest and she crumpled like paper into Sango's side.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Inuyasha flexed his fingers and swiped at the base of a tree. He growled as it hit the ground, satisfied with his own handiwork. Miroku stood back, watching Inuyasha slash his third tree to the ground. Best to let him have his little destructive fit before I step in, Miroku reflected.  
  
Inuyasha's form quivered in frustration and he looked around wildly for a moment, looking for something else to splinter into oblivion. Slicing trees was tolerable, but it did not satisfy his itch. He stood with a feral look in his eye, deeming everything thing around him to be the enemy.  
  
"Are you done with your tantrum yet?" Miroku leaned against a tree his eyebrow quirked in amusement.  
  
"Go away," Inuyasha seethed.  
  
"I would love to, Inuyasha, but my wife won't let me back into the house unless I assure her that you are all right." Miroku bent down and picked up a large piece or tree and bark. He wiggled in front of Inuyasha's face, "I don't think you're all right quite yet."  
  
Inuyasha snarled, "I'm fine."  
  
"Well, good then. How about we get out of this rain and talk somewhere that's sheltered?"  
  
Inuyasha crossed his arms and plunked himself down on the ground, right in the midst of the shattered wood.  
  
"At least you're not being difficult," Miroku quipped.  
  
"Feh," Inuyasha closed his eyes and took on his meditation pose.  
  
Miroku's face softened, "What happened?" He moved to Inuyasha's side and sat down, his feet flat on the ground and his hands resting on his knees.  
  
Inuyasha's eyes opened a smidge; an intense amber gaze looking at Miroku from the side, "I don't know," his words came out with a rumble emanating from his ribs. "She won't tell me anything."  
  
"Won't tell you what?"  
  
Inuyasha grimaced and tightened his crossed arms. He wrestled with his desire to vent his frustration and indignation with Miroku for poking his nose where it did not belong. True to form, Inuyasha's anger won out.  
  
"I don't know. She went up that mountain and when she came down she was different. She won't say a damn word and every time I ask her a question she sits me."  
  
"The mountain?" Miroku eyes snapped in curiosity, "Do the angels exist? Did they speak to you?"  
  
Inuyasha snorted, "They exist, but they didn't say a word to me. They were obsessed with Kagome. Some man took her off to talk to some angel and I couldn't go with her. They wouldn't let me." He flexed his claws, his anger still fresh and splashing to the surface.  
  
"What happened to you?"  
  
"Some little kid with wings touched me and I don't what happened. It's like I was frozen, Miroku, and there were all these images shooting around my head. I couldn't make sense of any of them, and I think Kagome could help me figure it out but she won't."  
  
"The angel laid hands on you. You saw what the child wanted you to see." Miroku reasoned, trying to get his friend to calm down, "What do you think you saw?"  
  
"I don't know!" Inuyasha cried in frustration. "If I did then I wouldn't have a problem now would I?"  
  
"Did the angel say anything to you?"  
  
"She said it was a gift. She said she hoped I could understand it." He unfolded his arms and buried his face in his palms.  
  
Miroku's shoulders drooped. This was out of his area of expertise. "What else is going on? Your attitude and body language tell me there is more than what you're telling me."  
  
Inuyasha raised his head and his hands moved to his haori, slightly to the left of his heart. His bristling attitude disappeared and all that was left was a remnant of his past anger, "She won't stay." He clutched at the red material, "She won't stay with me, Miroku." His voice was somber, accepting.  
  
"Did you tell her how you feel?"  
  
Inuyasha shook his head, "Kagome is engaged to a man in her own era." He balled his hand into a fist, but instead of swiping at the air or banging his hand into the ground, Inuyasha took the back of his hand to harshly wipe away the salt water that clouded his vision. "She loves him."  
  
"Are you sure, Inuyasha?" Miroku shifted backwards, slightly amazed that anyone would ever be able to shake Kagome's devotion to the hanyou.  
  
He nodded his head twice, slow. "She told me."  
  
"But, did you explain to her your own feelings?" Miroku put a comforting hand on Inuyasha's hunched shoulder. "Surely, that would change things."  
  
"It'd be wrong. She chose him."  
  
"You're willing to just let her leave without a fight?"  
  
Inuyasha held a quaking hand up to Miroku, half begging him to stop planting false hope, "She said I made my choice a long time ago and now she had made hers. She isn't mine."  
  
Miroku stood up and tried to shake the rain from his garments, "Well, I must say that is most unlike you, Inuyasha, but if you're willing to let her go then that is the decision you must live with." Miroku turned and walked back to the village, "Although, Sango and I will be the ones to live with your moping."  
  
"I heard that," Inuyasha shouted.  
  
"You were meant too," Miroku yelled through the thick rain.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Kagome cupped the warm tea in her hands and blew into the steaming liquid, the dew of it resting on her cheeks and lashes. Shippo had fallen asleep, his head resting upon her lap, and Taru was now trying to fight sleep in Sango's cozy arms.  
  
"You are positive the girl you saw was your and Inuyasha's child?" Sango asked, massaging the top of Taru's head.  
  
Kagome nodded, "Positive." She raised the cup to her lips and sipped the drink.  
  
"So then you and Inuyasha are . . ."  
  
"No!" Kagome shook her head with vigor. "No, Inuyasha and I are nothing but friends."  
  
"But there is a child to consider, Kagome. You can't ignore that." Sango's grip on Taru tightened and she kissed the top of his head. "There's no blessing greater than a child."  
  
"I can't base my life on a child that isn't born, Sango. Shiro and I have talked about children. We promised each other that we would have children together. How can I take that back?"  
  
Sango frowned. She had assumed that once Kagome came back through time things would seemingly fall into place. Kagome and Inuyasha would find one another again, she and Miroku would have their second child, and Shippo would have his adopted mother back. Now that castle in the sky she had erected in her mind was coming down around her shoulders.  
  
"Kagome?" Sango bit her lip, choosing her words carefully. "Is this really about your desire to be with Shiro or your desire to stay away from Inuyasha?"  
  
Kagome almost dropped the cup her cup of tea, "Sango, I don't know if I can make you understand. I can't stay here. I won't stay here."  
  
"Make me understand."  
  
"I can't be Inuyasha's wife. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life wondering if it's me or Kikyo that he's seeing. I loved Inuyasha when I was a girl, Sango, and I don't regret loving him, but my love for him . . . I don't know . . . . I guess it just stretched a little thin."  
  
"Does your refusal have anything to do with how he treated you back then?"  
  
"I suppose a part, but I've forgiven him." Kagome chewed her bottom lip, "If I stayed here it'd be like taking a step backwards. I need to move forward, not back."  
  
"Kagome, do you know exactly what happened when you left here?" Sango looked levelly at Kagome who shook her head. "He tried to go through that well a thousand times. Miroku caught him jumping in the well just two months ago. Inuyasha needs you. He's miserable without you."  
  
"Why didn't he figure that out a long time ago?" Her words were bitter and she was angered by the tears in her eyes. It's not like I haven't cried enough already, Kagome reasoned with herself.  
  
Sango's face softened at the vexation present in Kagome's face, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't lecture." She placed her hand in the middle of the table face up. Kagome slipped her own hand into Sango's hand, and smiled lightly at the warm squeeze she received. "I do understand your reservations and I did not mean to press the issue, but I love Inuyasha in a way similar to the way I loved Kohaku. And I love you as a sister. I just wanted happiness for both of you." Sango then smiled sheepishly, "And it was partially due to my own selfishness. I want you to stay."  
  
Kagome looked down at Shippo and patted his red head affectionately. She smiled at him with motherly love. She hated he thought of leaving him a second time, especially after he had devoted himself totally to her since she had come back. He made her dinner, found a blanket to keep her warm, and attended to her all evening. If only she could take him back with her and raise him as her own, but thoughts like that were not possible and therefore hardly worth considering.  
  
Sango looked down at Taru, his eyes completely closed, "Don't worry, Kagome. Whether your future is here or in your own time, we will always be sisters."  
  
Kagome smiled the first genuine smile she had given to anyone in almost a week, "Thanks."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Innis looked out from the holy mountain at the rain clouds that covered the land. She sighed and hugged her arms into her body. Worry was leaking from her body and she could find no way to ease the gnawing she felt at her heart.  
  
"I can sense you," Innis whispered to the tall figure behind her.  
  
The man came to her side and placed his large hand on the back of her head, tracing his way down her silky hair, "I was not trying to surprise you. I was merely trying to understand your thoughts."  
  
She turned to the man, "I can sense the girl, my lord. There is a great mangling in her heart. I fear for what may come to pass."  
  
The man placed his hand on Innis's pale cheek, "Did you explain to her the enormity of her decision? Does she understand the implications if she does not bare the child?"  
  
"I tried, my lord, but I do not think she understood. I was a poor messenger."  
  
"My beloved, you took up your calling with such dignity. You have told her all you can. It is up to her now."  
  
"But what if she denies her fate?" Innis bowed her head, her tone dipping into a well of grief.  
  
Her mate took her into his arms and enfolded her into his wings, "If she says no, then our blood will perish along with us as well as the blood of the demons. Only through the blood of man can we hope to survive."  
  
"The girl has been hurt by the one that is son of man and son of demon," Innis breathed into her husband's shoulder. "He bruised her heart. I don't know if the wound can heal."  
  
"Only time will tell, beloved, but the girl is strong. Nothing has been etched into stone yet." He held her tightly to him, and stroked her hair with his hands. She wrapped her wings around him as well, and the two clung to one another.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
I had hoped this chapter would have been longer, but I decided that this would be a better place to end the chapter. I have struggled with the direction of this story for a while and certain ideas and events seem to take shape in my mind and demand to be written even though they are not the original direction of the tale. I must admit I'm getting tired of writing cathartic dialogue and I am hoping that the next chapter will contain some decent action.  
  
Anyway, sorry for the long wait between chapters and I hope that you all enjoy this chapter. Thanks to all those who has stuck with this story for the long haul and I can only pray that you won't be disappointed. 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
  
I give you my life and all I am  
  
But what have it to give  
  
So I hand you a candid photograph of this little boy  
  
'Cause I've nothing to my name  
  
But I can give you that  
~ "Somewhere North of Here"  
Caedmon's Call  
  
Put your name on the line along with place and time  
  
Wanna stay not to go I wanna ditch the logical  
  
Here's a toast to all those who hear me all too well  
~"Here's to the Night"  
Eve 6  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Inuyasha snuck into the hut, careful not to wake the sleeping girl in the corner. It was only a few minutes past dawn, but he had grown impatient and restless. He had been fidgety and twitchy for the past two days and he tried so hard to be respectful of Kagome's wishes, but he needed to see her.  
  
He worried that she would try to sneak home while he was out in the forest, keeping his distance, and there was the constant nagging compulsion to check up on her. She looked broken that night, her hair soaking wet and her brown eyes bloodshot and glazed over, and he could hear her sniffling. The rain had given her the beginning of a cold.  
  
But now, she looked warm and comforted. She lay upon a mat in the corner of the hut, a large blanket covering her up to the chin. She was turned onto her side, and Inuyasha could see the slight rise and fall of her chest and hear her soft breathing. Kagome squirmed a bit and then frowned in her sleep. A thin sunbeam slipped through the window, and a bit of light rested on her cheek. Inuyasha crept, quietly, slowly to her side. He watched her.  
  
Kagome's eyelashes moved slightly with the morning breeze and the light on her cheek gave a healthy glow to her face. Her hair was a bit ratted in the back from sleep, but it was swept away from her face, tucked behind her ears.  
  
Inuyasha's eyes came to rest on her hairline, where her dark hair met creamy skin. His glance rested there, and he could make out a light vein through her transparent skin. It moved slightly, flitting as blood passed through softly, the rhythm of her pulse. He moved his finger to the spot and traced the vein lightly. There was an urge to lie beside her and watch that vein for hours, but she would wake soon. He moved his calloused thumb along her hairline. Kagome frowned again and began to squirm.  
  
He moved out the door with all the stealth of a cat demon, and tried to make it back into the woods before she realized what had transpired.  
  
Kagome's eyes opened before Inuyasha had a chance to make it out of the hut, but her vision was blurred with the remnants of sleep. The cool dawn air rushed into the room and she shook off her grogginess; the door was open.  
  
Kagome frowned and ran on her tiptoes to avoid the cold floor of the hut. She wrapped her hands around the door and prepared to shut it, squinting her eyes against the rising sun. She had little tolerance for light so early in the morning and brought her arm over her eyes as she looked out into the village. There was something bright red moving about in the distance.  
  
"Inuyasha?" Her voice was thick from sleep.  
  
Inuyasha walked towards the hut, looking like a child that had been caught with its hand in the cookie jar, "Whadda ya want?"  
  
"What are you doing? It can't be past six yet?" She tilted her head to the side and bit her lower lip.  
  
"Coming out of the woods." He stopped in front of her and crossed his arms. "Am I allowed inside?"  
  
Kagome looked down at the wood floor and shifted her weight onto her left foot while slowly rotating the right foot, "Why wouldn't you be?"  
  
"I got the impression I wasn't wanted."  
  
"Sorry," she sighed, "I didn't mean to come off like that." She put on a playful smile, "I guess you think I've been acting a little weird the last few days?"  
  
He snorted.  
  
"I just have a lot on my mind. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. Sorry." She stretched her smile, hoping it looked apologetic, and leaned against the doorframe. Her shoulders slumped.  
  
Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, "I didn't ask for an apology."  
  
"No, you didn't, but I offered one anyway." She took a step back, "Are you coming in?"  
  
He studied her, but offered her nothing in response save an acidic expression.  
  
"I'm going home tomorrow, Inuyasha, and I'd like to spend some more time with you before I leave." She rolled her eyes, far past the point of exasperation.  
  
Inuyasha's left ear twitched once and the sour expression crumbled into something far more pitiable.  
  
Kagome returned his expression, "Now will you come inside?"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Shippo took Kagome's hand in his own and grinned up at her as they walked along the dirt paths outside of the village. He held a bouquet of wildflowers in his hand, and his laughter and occasional side glances gave away his intention to surprise her with them after the walk. Taru ran behind the two, often jumping off the path to roll in the grass and the dirt.  
  
Shippo sniggered at the toddler's activities, "Taru, I don't think your Mom is going to be happy to find you so dirty when you get home." Taru giggled and wiped his dirty hands on his shirt.  
  
"Let him have some fun, Shippo." Kagome smiled. "He's a little boy. He's supposed to be dirty, and I seem to remember you getting messy when you were little."  
  
Shippo grinned sheepishly, "That was a long time ago."  
  
Taru then ran up to Shippo and held up his arms. There was a grin on his face that was reminiscent of Miroku's mischievous grins. Shippo picked the boy up and flipped him upside down. Taru giggled uncontrollably.  
  
"Can you get up?" Shippo teased the boy. Taru squealed in delight and tried to push his body up. "Come on, Taru! You're not even trying." Taru squished his face up and put all of his energy in lifting himself up, but only dissolved into screeches of wild laughter. After several failed attempts, Shippo lifted the boy on top of his shoulders.  
  
Kagome watched the scene and felt pride well up within her. Shippo had grown so much and not just physically. Sure he was only two inches shorter than her now, but it seemed that his heart and spirit had continued to grow by leaps and bounds as well. She watched him assist Kaede numerous times in the past two days, help Sango around the home, watch Taru while the others were busy, and quietly listen to Miroku's teachings. He was only twelve and still the essence of childhood hung on him, but his manner was that of a man.  
  
"Hey Kagome," Shippo asked, snapping her out of her thoughts, "why did Miroku and Inuyasha leave this morning?"  
  
"Inuyasha said he smelled some demon out in the woods. He and Miroku went patrolling just to be safe."  
  
"Oh." Shippo scratched his chin as though he were deep in thought. "I thought it had something to do with what happened to you and Inuyasha on your trip. Guess I was wrong."  
  
Kagome grinned ruefully, "Nice try, kiddo." She ruffled the hair on the top of his head, "You're not getting anything out of me."  
  
"Why are you angry with Inuyasha? Is he the reason why you're leaving?" Taru continued to cling onto Shippo's neck, caught in his own marvel at being lifted so high.  
  
"I'm not mad at Inuyasha." Kagome groaned and ran a hand through her hair, "I have to go home because my life is there." Shippo looked down at the ground and began to move dirt around with his toes. Kagome moved to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, "But don't think that means that my heart is entirely there." Shippo looked up at her with an expectant gaze. "I want to take you with me."  
  
Shippo tried to hold back the beginning of tears in the corners of his eyes. He remembered how Inuyasha told him that men did not cry. "I know, Kagome."  
  
Kagome placed her hand on his cheek. They stood there for a moment; neither saying how they knew it was impossible for him to come to her time anymore than circumstances would not allow her to stay in his. If it had not been for the thundering crescendo in the distance, slightly to the east, the two may have continued for a while longer.  
  
The pair jerked away, startled by the sound. Shippo focused his hearing and put his finger to his mouth with a serious look, trying to shush Kagome and Taru.  
  
His eyes snapped wide open, "A demon, Kagome. A very large demon and it's close to the village! We need to get there now." He quickly took Taru down from his shoulders and moved him to his arms. He grabbed Kagome's arm and began running towards the village. "Inuyasha and Miroku headed north this morning. It's not likely that there close to here."  
  
Kagome freed her arm from Shippo's grip and ran, full speed, towards the village. It did not take them long before they entered the outskirts of the village.  
  
Shippo set Taru down, "Go hide, Taru." Taru nodded, his small face looking set and determined.  
  
Kagome continued running along the familiar old road, past huts and anxious villagers. Shippo followed just a few feet behind.  
  
"What kind of demon is it Shippo?" Kagome yelled.  
  
"Sounds like a coyote demon." Shippo bellowed.  
  
It took only a minute to reach the center of the village. The face of the demon to came into view. He was still a distance away, but the demon appeared to be massive. His fur was a deep black and his eyes were thin, blood-red. The demon's growl was guttural and there was a visceral edge to his swift movements. Kagome and Shippo froze.  
  
The demon took several steps and centered his red glare. He raised a large paw and looked ready to swipe at the closest hut.  
  
"Leave!" Shippo jumped up, covering quite a distance, and distracted the demon while Kagome sprinted to catch up. Shippo morphed his shape and grew several feet. "Why are you here?"  
  
The demon merely snarled and raised his hand to swing at the young kitsune. Shippo dodged the large the padded claws and sprung at the demon. He aimed for the demon's stomach and pulled back his fist to strike. His fist made contact with the large coyote's soft belly and a rush of air escaped its lungs. The coyote took a step back, regained his bearings, squatted low to the ground, and flashed his teeth. Once again, the demon raised a large paw and lashed out at Shippo.  
  
Kagome rushed past huts and the people rushing out of the village. She circled around towards Sango's hut and shoved the door open, the wood creaking with the force.  
  
"Sango, where are you?"  
  
Sango peeked out from her bedroom, her eyes wide with fear, "Where's Taru?"  
  
"He's hiding." Sango's eyes drifted to her belly, silently cursing her inability to help. She raised frightened eyes. "Don't worry. Shippo's distracting the demon." Her words streamed from her mouth, quick and desperate. "Where's my bow and arrow?"  
  
Sango dashed towards a closet and began tossing things around. She disappeared within the space for a second, but then stepped out with the bow and arrow in hand. "Here."  
  
Kagome grabbed them hastily, "Thanks." She spun out of the room, out the open door, and ran towards the sounds of the battle.  
  
Shippo stood a distance away from the demon ready to pounce when Kagome came to the clearing. He reached out with his still immature claws and sunk them into coyote's leg. Warm blood bubbled up from the broken flesh and washed over Shippo's hand. Shippo looked at his hand in horror, sickened by the stench and the intense color of the hot liquid. The demon took advantage of the momentary lapse and struck Shipp squarely in the side. Instantly, Shippo lost all the mass he had shifted into and flew threw the air, landing in the dirt. He tried to pull himself up, but his head felt as though it were splitting in two and his vision doubled. Everything twisted around him in a dizzying arc. Despite all efforts, his body refused to move.  
  
"Shippo!" Kagome felt the familiar tang of fear in her mouth as she watched as Shippo wiry body slam into the dirt. Now that the young kitsune lay in the dust, no longer a hassle, the coyote demon turned his anger to Kagome. The demon sensed the fury radiating from her, recognizing immediately her miko power.  
  
The demon inched towards her, a desperation embracing him. Kagome snatched an arrow and gripped it in her hand for a second. She felt a slight tingling in her fingers as a purifying energy was transferred from her to the arrow. Then, took the bow and held it steady as she stretched the arrow and the string taut. "Leave now!"  
  
The demon ignored the warning; he stepped closer, bring his head down to look at her. He stopped mere inches from her face, his eyes snapping viciously. He exhaled and his dank breath seemed to blister the skin on her face.  
  
"What do you want here?" Kagome asked, her voice grave. The demon breathed again, more forceful. Kagome closed her eyes for a moment. "You want blood." She moved the point of the arrow and leveled it in between the demon's eyes. "Leave and I'll spare you." The demon moved his weight, testing her. "I don't want to kill you so please leave now!"  
  
A cry of disgust began in the demon's stomach and traveled to his throat. He wanted no part of this girl's pity. His roar echoed in Kagome's ear and the coyote flashed his fangs, ready to sink into the girl's flesh.  
  
Kagome let the arrow loose and it struck the demon between the eyes. The demon staggered backwards, trying to edge back to safety. He raised the paw, struck the arrow, and dislodged it from his forehead.  
  
"It's not too late." Kagome continued to reason with the beast. "I didn't power the arrow up enough to kill you. You can still leave with your life."  
  
The coyote continued to retreat while Kagome watched him carefully, not bothering to charge up a second arrow. Now at the edge of the woods, the demon stopped and glanced around. The girl still stared at him, but the young kitsune was lying on the ground unconscious. The coyote noted that he was at least several hundred feet away from the girl. If he could move quickly, he could take the young kitsune in his mouth without the girl having time to grab an arrow and aim it. He moved his eyes back to the girl.  
  
Without warning, the coyote raced towards the limp form of the boy. Kagome took an arrow in her hand, charged it up, and released it. It all happened within a blinking moment. The arrow was shot and connected with the side of the coyote, disappearing into the demon with a pink flash. The coyote sank to the ground, a few feet from Shippo's limp form, devoid of all life.  
  
Kagome scrunched her eyes shut, "I didn't want to do that. You didn't give me a choice." Her words fell from her mouth, intended for no one in particular. She moved slowly towards Shippo, until a hand reached from behind to restrain her. She turned and saw Miroku and Inuyasha, both standing back silent and amazed.  
  
"Kagome," Miroku breathed, "I didn't know you could still do that."  
  
She looked at Inuyasha's surprised face, "I took an archery class at college."  
  
She looked remorsefully down at the bow and arrows she clutched. "It wasn't a big deal." Kagome tossed the bow and arrow to the ground and went to tend Shippo.  
  
* * * * * * * *  
  
Kagome pushed the food around her plate, "Thanks Sango, but I'm not hungry." With one hand, she moved the plate away.  
  
"So you're definitely leaving?" Miroku asked her openly without any visible hesitancy in his voice.  
  
Kagome nodded, "I'm getting married in a few days. I've already stayed too long."  
  
Sango took the plate away and sat next to Kagome, "Have you spoken with Inuyasha?"  
  
"Some things are better left unsaid." She laid her head against Sango's shoulder. Sango stroked the back of Kagome's head with a steady graceful hand. "He agreed to walk me back to the well. I'll speak with him then."  
  
Miroku smiled at her sadly, "I wish you'd stay, Kagome. You're a part of this family. Taru will miss you terribly and I would've liked for my second son to have known you."  
  
Kagome touched Sango's stomach and smiled, "What if it's a girl, Miroku?"  
  
"It is a girl." Sango said with certainty. "There are already too many men in this house. Surely, the powers will not bring another man to deal with." She stared pointedly at Miroku.  
  
He wisely ignored Sango's comment and suddenly clasped Kagome's hands in his own, "We'll miss you, Lady Kagome. And may your life hold nothing but good blessings." He moved across the table and kissed her chastely upon the cheek.  
  
Sango also squeezed her hand with all the tidings and reassurance a sister could give, "Be happy, Kagome."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
It had been difficult to say goodbye to Taru, Sango, and Miroku, but especially difficult to say goodbye to Shippo. They had spoken for hours, trying to prolong their separation. He had cried and she had squeezed him with her tight hugs. She made him promise to take care of Taru and the baby that would come soon, and he made her promise to never forget him. Kagome had wanted to let him know how much he meant to her, but the words did not seem available. Still, he smiled at her as she walked out the door, letting her know that he understood all that she could not say.  
  
She had fared no better in saying farewell to Kaede.  
  
Kaede had watched her leave with sad, old eyes, "Child, what happened on the mountain?"  
  
"It's not something I can share." Kagome regretted her silence.  
  
"And you are intent on leaving?"  
  
Kagome smiled softly, "There's someone waiting for me." She knelt down in front of the old woman.  
  
"Then bless ye child." Kaede touched Kagome's leg with an old, weathered hand. "It was good to have you among us even if it was for a short time."  
  
"Thank you, Kaede."  
  
Kaede smiled regretfully, "Once Kikyo taught me how to make healing herbs and how to be a priestess. When her spirit parted from this world, I had no other siblings. There was no one to share my knowledge with until you, Kagome." Kaede took her hands. "I am honored to have taught you."  
  
"No Kaede, the honor was mine."  
  
"One thing before leave, child."  
  
Kagome nodded, "Anything."  
  
"Speak to Inuyasha. He may not be able to choose his words wisely, but his heart is swollen. You see, he has been waiting for you as well." Kaede pointed out to a stretch of trees. Inuyasha sat on the tallest branch, one leg swing slightly in the air. "Do not leave with animosity in the air because there will be no other time to be rid yourselves of it."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Inuyasha walked several steps behind Kagome and tried to focus on anything other than her. Kagome watched the sun as it dipped low in the sky. Dusk was settling into its place quickly and left a trail of color gradation in its wake. The remainder of sunlight tipped the shapes all around them, seeming to illuminate the bark and the leaves of the surrounding trees.  
  
Kagome took it all in and it charged her, filled her with sadness, a feeling that taunted and agonized her already bruised insides. The past few days had been full of sentiment and emotion, so much that it left her depleted, weary. There was nothing left but the realization that all of this would be beyond her in a few minutes.  
  
She stopped, "Inuyasha?"  
  
He drew back, "Yeah?"  
  
Kagome whirled around and looked him in the eye. She swallowed the lump in her throat, "Thank you."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"For guiding me the last few days. You didn't have to."  
  
Inuyasha blinked once, "I didn't mind." His voice was tender.  
  
Kagome sauntered near him, wondering how to tell him she would miss him. She was not sure what would be appropriate after all that had transpired. She stopped very close to him. Standing so near, the urge to fling her arms around him and cling to him seemed sensible. Kagome turned away; his steady amber gaze was too much.  
  
"I guess this is it."  
  
Inuyasha dropped his eyes. Watching her leave was unimaginable, but here he was and there she was ready to abandon him a second time. "What happened on the mountain, Kagome?"  
  
She rubbed her neck until it was red but did not answer.  
  
"I saw things up there. The angel made me see things." She squirmed and fidgeted under his blunt words. "I've been trying to make sense of what all the images were, but there were too many and they came so fast."  
  
"Take my advice, Inuyasha." She looked at him, her face grim. "Don't put too much thought into it."  
  
He growled and grabbed her hand, holding it firmly. She tried to pull away, even putting her hand to his chest and pushing him back. He was invading her space, her privacy. "Let go!" she hissed.  
  
"I saw you," Inuyasha screamed. "I couldn't make sense of any of the images except one. You were looking up and smiling." He looked at her as though he were waiting for her to confirm what he saw but she just tightened her lips. "You were holding a baby, Kagome!"  
  
Kagome tried to yank her arm free.  
  
"Tell me what in the hell I saw? I know you know!" He screamed at her. "I saw the dreams too! I'm as much a part of this as you are!"  
  
She had a sharp urge to sit him, but she pushed it back. "Let go of me!" He stared at her, refusing to answer her request until she gave him some answers.  
  
"Please Inuaysha, let go of my hand." She slumped and came dangerously close to using him for support.  
  
"What did I see?" He was sick with confusion but let go of her hand.  
  
Kagome pressed her eyes shut, "Think, Inuyasha." He frowned in contemplation. "What color were the baby's eyes?"  
  
And it all snapped.  
  
Kagome's smiling face and the baby with flailing arms, cheeks smooth with baby fat, and a pair of wide golden eyes. Every image seemed to align itself in his mind; Kagome holding a baby, he with his arms around her, and a young woman with long white hair and a smile that made him want to break into tears.  
  
Blindly, he reached for Kagome again, searching the space around him. He pawed at the air for a moment, only coming back to reality when he could not find her. He opened his eyes wide and once spotting her, only a few feet away, gathered her to him. He nearly choked her with the force of his hug. She relaxed for a moment, cherishing the warmth he gave her. She had been so cold walking out here, shivering with the strength of the chill, but he shielded her from it.  
  
He rested his head against her hair, forgetting why he was out here with her. For a second, the only thing that existed in the world was the two of them. He stroked the back of her head.  
  
"Inuyasha?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"I need to go home." Her voice was shaky, coated with a sickly emotion.  
  
His grip loosened only a bit, "Home?"  
  
She brought her arms up to his biceps and pushed herself away, "Home, to my time."  
  
He tried to process her words, his eyebrows burrowing at her meaning.  
  
"Shiro and my family are waiting." He face was still frozen in an intense frown. She tried again, "I'm getting married in a few days. I need to go." Kagome's voice cracked.  
  
Inuyasha turned away from her. He clenched his fists.  
  
"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked hesitantly.  
  
He tried to speak, but a gargled noise came from his throat. He took in a ragged breath, "Don't go." He whipped around on her without warning, "Stay with me."  
  
"I can't." The tears came without warning. It would take more effort than she could muster to hold them back.  
  
He cupped her face in his hands. His thumb brushed her wet cheeks, and he ignored her refusal. "Stay," he pleaded. He tilted his head to the side, staring.  
  
Kagome shook her head and looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears, "Kikyo's gone. You're lonely." She begged him to be rational. "You don't want me."  
  
"You're all I see, Kagome." His answer was confident. Sure.  
  
"You don't mean that."  
  
Inuyasha moved one hand away from her face and grabbed her hand; the other continued to stroke her cheek, "I loved Kikyo because she accepted me. Nobody besides my Mom ever did that. And I held onto it for so long, but I squeezed all the life out of it." He took a breath and tried to read her face. "And then there was you. You accepted me and took care of me. When you left," he looked away, almost as though he were ashamed, "I tried to forget you. I couldn't do it."  
  
Kagome shook her head violently, trying to rid her head of his words, "I need to go home. Shiro's waiting for me."  
  
Inuyasha took his hands off of Kagome as if he had been scalded by her, "To hell with Shiro!" His eyes slanted and his gentle mood had washed away, "What about the child, Kagome?" His tone broke, "Our child. Yours and mine." His last words were little more than a whisper.  
  
The image of the girl appeared to her. This time she was much younger. She looked into Kagome with amber eyes and grinned, two dimples appearing in her cheeks. "Mother." The words echoed in Kagome's brain. A sweet child's voice full of yearning, calling for her.  
  
Kagome pulled her hands up to her ears and let out an uncontrolled sob. Her lips trembled as she looked at Inuyasha, her face asking him for mercy. Another sob came. Inuyasha pulled her into him. She laid her head on his shoulder, weeping for a moment.  
  
He pulled her away to look at her face, a faint flush on his cheeks. "Will you . ."  
  
Her hand covered his mouth tenderly. Her eyes looked almost manic and too large as she watched him. "Give me some time to think about it." She buried her head in the crook of his neck. "Just give me a little time, Inuyasha."  
  
"Time?" he cried. "What if you can't make it back?"  
  
She brought his head down and rested her forehead against his own, "If I'm meant to be with you, then I'll find my way back." Kagome turned and walked away, leaving him standing there.  
  
He tried to look away and turned his back, but he looked over his shoulder with soulful eyes. "I don't care," he whispered. "I couldn't care less," he screamed for her ears alone.  
  
His words convinced no one. Particularly not himself.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"Where is she?" Shiro bellowed. "I'm not a fool, Mrs. Higurashi. I know she used to get sick in the past, but she wouldn't leave to go to some quarantined hospital without telling me!"  
  
"Shiro, it was very serious. She had to leave immediately." Mrs. Higurashi explained. Souta sat back in a armchair and rolled his eyes.  
  
"What's wrong with her? I'm worried to death, and no one will give me a straight answer!" Shiro had reached the end of his proverbial rope. It had been almost two weeks since Kagome had disappeared, and Mariko and he had tried to get some explanation from her family for days without any results.  
  
"She'll be fine. Kagome just needed some time to heal."  
  
"From what?" he wrung his hands.  
  
"I'm back."  
  
"Kagome!" Shiro turned at the sound of her voice, looked at her for a moment, picked her up, and held her. "I was worried sick." He kissed her cheek with his soft lips and massaged the back of her head with his fingers.  
  
Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. Here, in Shiro's arms smelling his musky cologne, things were simple. She slackened against him and wrapped her arms around his slight figure.  
  
"I'm home now, Shiro."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~  
  
A continued thanks to everyone who reads and reviews this silly story! It feels like so long since I've been able to update. Graduate school is a major time hog and I am positive that Neuroanatomey was created by the devil. Regardless, this story is finally hitting the home stretch. It seems like forever ago that I had this idea and decided to put it on paper. There's still some more stuff to come and I have one or two surprises up my sleeve still. So please keep reviewing and be free with criticisms or suggestions. I love feedback!  
  
I did want to take a minute to explain one aspect of this story. More than one reviewer had made comments about how they hope Kagome will see the light and come back to Inuyasha. To that I must say, patience my dear and cherished readers! I have tried to make this story as realistic as possible and to have Kagome run back into Inuyasha's arms seemed to be a bit unrealistic to me. But I must say, I do love comments like those because it makes me reassess and rethink my writing which ultimately only makes it better. So thank you! 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9  
  
So dream a little dream for me in hopes that I'll remain, And cry a little cry for me so I can bear the flames, And hurt a little hurt for me, my future is untold, But my dreams are not the issue here, for they, the hammer holds  
  
Bebo Norman, "Hammer Holds"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Innis stretched out her hands, palm up and fingers slightly flexed, and used them to focus her energies. Her inner vision broadened and blanketed the surrounding lands, searching for the unique presence she encountered a few days ago.  
  
She stood at the edge of the angels' mountain with her arms extended while everything around dulled to a hazy shade of gray. Her vision ricocheted from mind to mind searching for the correct vibration of heart, mind, and soul. She skimmed the brains of all those living within the country for hours, and through the fog of minds only one remained constant.  
  
That constant, fervent voice whispered into the forefront of her mind, "Have you found her?"  
  
"No, my lord."  
  
"Have you searched for energy distortions?" The voice was steady and fed her with warmth and energy.  
  
Innis rechanneled her concentration and began peeling back the remnants of energy patterns, tracing back several days. Ripples of power and energy swept past her and then one stopped before it cycled past, freezing all other waves before and behind it. She plucked the pink wave from the rest and angled it in front of her vision. She felt a pulse from it, a lingering and familiar rhythm. It was a temporal energy that twisted before her and it suggested only one thing.  
  
The girl had traveled back to her own time.  
  
Innis opened her eyes and her focus broke. All imprints of energy dispersed without her concentration. She turned sad eyes to her mate.  
  
"She's gone." She looked to him and then looked away. "I have failed."  
  
He brought his hands up to her pale cheeks. She shuddered at his touch and tried to back away. "My love, the girl made her own choice. You fulfilled the role you were meant to play. What more could you do?"  
  
"Our son will have no bride! Surely, a portion of the blame falls upon my shoulders."  
  
He spoke no further, at least not with words. Rather, he entered into her mind and gave her a mental caress, with nothing more than a thought, which slid across her psyche.  
  
Innis forced him out from her mind, "But our bloodlines, my lord! You know we're dying out. If we cannot survive threw the blood of mortals, then our race will disappear entirely." He put a hand to his forehead and winced; she shunted him out too forcefully. "I'm sorry, my lord. I did not. . ." She hesitated when she saw his left hand move to from his side to her face.  
  
He touched the corners of her clouded gray eyes with his thumb and stared at the moistness that he gathered. His finger moved to her cheek and traced her cheekbone before burying his hand in her hair. She leaned her head into his hand as he gently twisted the thick strands of hair around his fingers.  
  
He waited until she breathed softly and the sound of her heartbeat slowed. "What about the hanyou?"  
  
She frowned, "What about him?"  
  
"If the girl is gone, he will be alone." Innis stared at him and the shadow that entered into his eyes, trying to comprehend his meaning. "In the same way you are connected with the girl, I am connected with the hanyou."  
  
"Why did you not tell me?"  
  
"It was your calling to be the messenger, Beloved, not mine. But, I can feel the hanyou's soul, and it is tender, almost to the point of rupturing."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Inuyasha sat with his arms crossed and rested against the well. He looked into the blackness and cursed the unfairness of it all. She had come back, mercilessly planted a foolish hope, and left him again. This time, however, she left him with the full knowledge of what could have been; a life with her, happiness, and a daughter.  
  
The image of his daughter as a woman rushed to his mind. He could see her in a white kimono with blue flowers printed over the delicate fabric. A vivid blue sash was tied around her waist, and her long silver hair was split down the middle of her head and tied back behind her ears in two pigtails with blue ribbons. .  
  
Inuyasha could swear he heard her infectious laughter pulsing in his ears and he reminded himself that this girl should mean nothing to him. After all, she would never be born. Kagome wanted children, but not his children. She wanted Shiro's children, and the thought made him ill.  
  
Unbidden images slammed into Inuyasha's mind, images of precisely what Kagome would be doing with this man in order to have children. A terrible flush tinged his cheeks, coming from a peculiar fusion of anger, jealousy, embarrassment, and mortification.  
  
He leapt over the side of the well.  
  
He hit the dirt bottom, praying for a flashing light to transport him to the future so he could snap every bone in Shiro's hands. He could not touch Kagome then. One side of his mouth quirked up at the thought, but there was no flash of light or the old rush of being thrust years into the future.  
  
"Let me through," Inuyasha hissed, grabbing the soil. He scratched at the dirt and then dug into the coolness of it.  
  
He growled, "It's important!" He threw himself into digging. He pulled the dirt away with ruthless and savage swings. "Please," he begged to the air around him.  
  
No merciful response came and he sunk into the wall of the well with exhaustion. He hit the partitions with a clenched fist, brought a shaking hand up to cover his eyes, and burrowed his head into his chest.  
  
"Feh," he murmured, the words weak even to his own ears.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Kagome squinted, the noon sun shining directly into her eyes. It was half past noon, and she sat in the courtyard of a fancy restaurant. The table was made of wrought-iron with a white umbrella overhead. She looked down at the chicken on her plate and then at the man sitting across from her.  
  
He smiled, "Eat, Kagome. You need to get your strength up, especially for the wedding."  
  
"I know."  
  
"We need all the strength we can get," he rolled his eyes, "with all my relatives running around, making things so much more stressful than the need to be."  
  
Kagome took a bite of her chicken, "Don't I know it."  
  
"My mother has got to be driving you insane. She's been running around trying to finalize the exact shade of blue the tablecloths will be and which type of white wine we'll be toasting each other with."  
  
"Your mother is a character," she agreed.  
  
"She's anal."  
  
Kagome frowned, "I didn't say that."  
  
"No, you didn't." Shiro took a bite of his noodles and then pointed his fork at himself, "I did. She's been asking me when she can plan on being a grandmother. And since we're on the subject of grandmothers, are your cheeks bruised yet?"  
  
"Not yet," she grinned sardonically, "but if she keeps pinching and patting my cheeks every five minutes they will be."  
  
Shiro finished his last bite of food, patted his stomach, stretched, and placed his hands behind his head, "She adores you, you know. My whole family does. Uncle Isamu has asked me several times how a lazy kid like me could end up with someone like you."  
  
"He doesn't mean it."  
  
Shiro laughed, "The funny thing is that he does and he's right." He sat up and grabbed Kagome's hand across the table, bringing it to his mouth to kiss it.  
  
"Don't be stupid," Kagome said, dismissing his off-handed compliment.  
  
"You're intelligent, sensitive, patient, and not to mention incredibly hot." He comically scooted his chair back to ogle her legs, lifting his sunglasses to fully appreciate her long limbs. "Why are you with me anyway?" His tone was droll and humorous.  
  
"It's your money," Kagome shot back, wittily.  
  
"Well, that's certainly a good reason." He grinned wickedly, "I must commend you for being a very practical young woman." He grabbed his wine glass, "Let's make a toast to your wisdom and my money." His mannerisms were large and exaggerated.  
  
"Before we do, I must make a confession," Kagome whispered.  
  
"Really?" Shiro's eyebrows lifted in mock surprise. "Well do tell."  
  
"Well," Kagome began pretending to be hesitant, "I'm afraid love may have something to do with it too."  
  
"Love? Are you suggesting that you might be marrying me for love?"  
  
She held up her hands in surrender, "I know, I know. It's very impractical of me."  
  
Shiro leaned into the table, "I must admit to being a little relieved."  
  
"Relieved?" Kagome leaned towards Shiro.  
  
"Well, I must confess that I may love you too."  
  
Kagome grinned, her dimples deepening, "Very impractical of both of us! Well, what are we going to do with ourselves now?"  
  
Shiro shrugged his shoulder and came closer to her, "I suppose we'll have to live happily ever after or something along those lines."  
  
"If we have to we have too," Kagome sighed.  
  
Shiro smiled and put his hand on her neck, guiding her face towards his. He kissed her. His lips were warm and familiar.  
  
Somewhere in the deep folds of her brain, she sensed a frustrated and inconsolable sensation.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Sango stood at the base of the old tree and rubbed her hand against the bark that looked white and cracked with the weight of age. She looked up at the branches, staring at Inuyasha. He had not come down from that tree in two days, not since Shippo saw him trying to pass through the Bone Eater's Well.  
  
He refused to come down to help Miroku patrol the neighboring villages. He refused to come down to eat. He refused to come down to play with Taru. He refused to come down to continue training Shippo in the use of his demon powers. His pride had swelled within him and nothing short of the apocalypse would bring him down.  
  
"Inuyasha?" Sango spoke his name softly.  
  
His eyes were shut and he looked asleep, but Sango's eyes were too sharp to deceive and she knew the hanyou too well. She knew the despair hidden behind those heavy lids, and after considering him part of her family for years she developed the ability to read his body language almost as accurately as Kagome could.  
  
"Inuyasha?" She tried again. "I know you're awake. I brought some food."  
  
"You shouldn't have wandered out here this far in your condition. Go home." His voice was concerned rather than agitated.  
  
"I'm pregnant not dying," she retorted. "Will you please come down? Taru has been asking for you."  
  
Inuyasha opened his eyes, looking out into the woods, fidgeting only slightly.  
  
She pressed her cheek against the bark and sighed, "At least come down for a second to eat. I made some noodles."  
  
"Not hungry."  
  
"You can't stay up there forever."  
  
Inuyasha tightened his cross arms and turned his head away from her.  
  
Sango shook her head in frustration, trying to suppress her desire to grab her boomerang and smack him down. Her intention to comfort him was quickly squelched by irritation. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.  
  
"Go back home, Sango, and mind your own business," he yelled, his belligerence filtering down to her ears.  
  
"I know about everything!" She yelled upwards, "Kagome told me every bit of it."  
  
Inuyasha's head snapped downwards and he gaped at her words.  
  
"I know about the child."  
  
That knowledge did it.  
  
Inuyasha jumped down from the tree, landing a foot or two away from Sango. "Should've known the wench couldn't keep her trap shut. What all did she tell you?"  
  
"She said the two of you were supposed to have a little girl and that she looked a lot like you." Sango stopped at the stricken look on his face and took a large breath before speaking again, "She said the girl was destined to marry an angel to unite the blood of the three races."  
  
Inuyasha threw himself against the wide trunk of the tree and threw his hands up in the air, lashing out at it, "Well, she told you more than she's told me!"  
  
Sango awkwardly moved herself to the ground, kneeling down, "Kagome was confiding to me, Inuyasha. She was upset."  
  
"Why couldn't she tell me?" he cried.  
  
"She was scared. She had no idea of how you'd react and she was so intent on going home."  
  
Inuyasha seemed to curl up within himself and he grimaced. Sango wished she could have sucked her words back in. She had come to comfort him, but all she had accomplished was reminding him of Kagome's departure.  
  
His eyes seemed blank to Sango, empty, but in actuality there was a flurry of action behind the vacant retinas. He was imaging Kagome's future husband. He was probably smart and polite, kind and passive, everything he was not. Inuyasha sighed deeply and leaned further into the tree for support.  
  
"I know she cares for you, Inuyasha, more than even she can convey, but she has a life in her time. She couldn't abandon it, but that doesn't take away her feelings for you."  
  
"What feelings?" he snarled. "If she had any feeling, she would have stayed!"  
  
"She loved you. You knew that." Sango placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.  
  
Sango had said that Kagome loved him. Loved. Loved as in the past tense. Loved as in once she had been in love with him, but now she was in love with another.  
  
The words gnawed at his insides making him feel nauseous. He swatted her hand away, "She left because of me. It's my fault she wouldn't stay."  
  
"What?" Sango frowned.  
  
He rubbed his eyes furiously, annoyed by his own emotion, "I hurt her because of Kikyo. She said I was gentle with Kikyo and rough with her." He bit the side of his cheek, "I drove her away didn't I?" He looked at Sango questioningly, looking for the confirmation to his revelation.  
  
"That was years ago. She's long since forgiven you."  
  
"But I hurt her!" he insisted.  
  
Sango sighed, "You weren't always kind." She let the words slip through, feeling guilty and disloyal in her admission. "But she knew you cared. I know she did."  
  
"I ruined it all."  
  
Sango shrank back, frightened by the finality and the acceptance stretched through his words. Her motherly instinct seized control and she threw her arms around him, drawing him close to her.  
  
He pushed her away half-heartedly, "And I'll never have my daughter." He was still calm, but there was a sickeningly despair in his words  
  
She tightened her grip and pressed him to her. He gave in and buried a silver head into her shoulder, his claw grabbing the cloth on the back of her dress. He clung to her and trembled under her sisterly warmth.  
  
Sango felt tears prick her eyes and she tightened her grip. A swell of emotion almost choked her as she realized just how many boundaries she and the hanyou crashed through. Years ago, Inuyasha had been rude, brash, condescending, and would never let someone within ten feet of his emotions, and all this was even after Kagome had affected him. But now, with time and a few years of acceptance, he invited her into a place in which an incredibly select few were allowed. It nearly killed her to sense the depth of his emotion and share with him his worst fear, losing Kagome.  
  
"Just don't leave," she breathed. "Stay with us." She pleaded, still afraid he might fall back upon old habits.  
  
He lifted his head, his eyes boring into her, overflowing with a softness so foreign to him, "Where else would I go?"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Mariko eyed Kagome suspiciously as they walked through the department store. Kagome looked healthy enough even after her supposed two week stay at a quarantined hospital. Sure she looked a little tired, mentally as well as physically, but surely someone that had a nearly fatal infection would look a little worse for wear.  
  
"Kagome, are you sure you're up to getting married in five days. I mean with your sickness and all maybe it'd be better to just delay it for a week." Mariko picked up a pair of high heeled shoes and eyed them, "Maybe these will look good with your wedding dress?"  
  
"I'm fine, Mariko!" Kagome smiled. "The doctor gave me a clean bill of health. I think they made it sound a lot more serious than it really was." Kagome picked up the shoes and studied them, "No, I don't really like the style of them. I think I want an open-toed shoe."  
  
"What about Shiro? Does he still want to go on with the wedding with you sick and all?"  
  
Kagome walked further down the shoe aisle, "We talked about it, and we both want to go on with it. Besides, it can't be delayed. We've got to get back to school, especially with me trying to get admitted to graduate school."  
  
Mariko rolled her eyes, "That's precisely why you got sick! You drive yourself to the point of exhaustion. Relax! It's not like any school in this country would reject you. You've never made anything below an A."  
  
"I'm going to relax!"  
  
Mariko picked up another pair of shoes, "I suppose that's what the honeymoon is for isn't it?" Her eyes flashed puckishly. She winked.  
  
Kagome blushed, "That's the plan."  
  
"So not to bring up a moot point, but what exactly did you do at the hospital for two weeks? Must've been boring being quarantined."  
  
"I was trying to get better."  
  
"Besides the obvious, I mean."  
  
Kagome bit her lip and thought for a moment, "I thought a lot about the past. That way, I'd be ready to get on with the future."  
  
"So are you ready?"  
  
Kagome picked up another pair of shoes with a shaky hand, "Ready as I'll ever be."  
  
"Uh oh!" Mariko giggled. "Looks like you might be getting some cold feet."  
  
Kagome giggled nervously.  
  
"Can't say that I don't blame you." Mariko laughed at her friend. "If I were committing myself to someone for the rest of my life, especially at the age of 21, I'd be running for the hills!"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Kagome shut her front door and sighed in relief. Mariko was suspicious, constantly prodding about her illness and pretend hospital stay. She was far too smart to fool for long and Kagome was beginning to lose track of all the lies she had told to cover the truth, but that was much better than the alternative. She set down her shopping bags and plopped into a chair.  
  
Souta ran downstairs at the sound of the front door slamming, "How was shopping?"  
  
"Tiring. Mariko's driving me crazy with questions."  
  
"Why don't you just tell her the truth?" Souta asked. "I think she could handle it. It's not like she'd run out and tell Shiro."  
  
"True, but I don't feel like trying to explain it all and I've got enough to deal with the wedding." Kagome stood up and brushed herself off, "I should've eloped."  
  
"Or you could've stayed in the past." Kagome gave him a withering glance. "Just a suggestion," Souta said in a sing-song voice.  
  
"I'm going to take a nap, little brother." Kagome stressed the last two words, roughly mussing his short hair. "Wake me up before dinner."  
  
Kagome walked to her bedroom and plunked herself on the bed. She turned to her side, tucking her hands underneath her pillow. She sighed and looked out her window.  
  
Things were so confusing. Everything was insane with wedding preparations, and no matter how hard she tried she could not strike the image of Inuyasha's hurt eyes as she told him she was leaving away from her mind.  
  
And then there was Shiro with his tall gangly body and keen mind. He loved to tease and challenge, but seconds later he would cuddle and kiss, always wanting to be close to her. He adored her and had no qualms about admitting it. Sure, he could be a bit of a workaholic when it came to school, tended to bite off way more than he could chew at times, and possessed some annoying little quirks, but she would be hard pressed to find a better match. He was far from perfect, but really he was about as close as she would get.  
  
She was content with him and happy to receive his kisses and admiring glances now that she was back, but the dreams had not stopped. If anything they had become more intense and less decipherable.  
  
The first night she dreamt of Inuyasha, the second she had dreamt of the angel with his large wingspan, and last night she had dreamt of the girl. All the dreams were dark with hazy edges, and they all seemed to close in upon her, squeezing the breath from her lungs until she woke up with a throat raw from screaming.  
  
"I want to be with Shiro," she whispered to herself. "Is that so wrong?"  
  
It wasn't fair that so much weight had been assigned to her. It seemed that the continuance of the demon's and angel's bloodline depended entirely upon her decision. There were so many aspects and people to consider, and to make the best choice for all would mean the end of her life, leaving her plans nothing but meaningless dust.  
  
She rolled onto her back and squeezed her eyes shut. Instantly, a blue- gray haze descended upon her miko vision and a child's face appeared before her. A sad face with round cheeks, curly brown hair, and large smoky gray eyes. A hoary tear fell and the child's lips quivered.  
  
"I want to find my love," the child whispered. "Please."  
  
Pressure built up in Kagome's forehead. His words were spoken not with a mouth, but with a mind, making them more hot and intense. Her mind burned.  
  
"He aches for you."  
  
"Who?" she asked, her brain numb and blinded by the passionate thoughts.  
  
"His soul has splintered."  
  
Kagome could feel the boys mind expand and reach towards another. She could sense the boy's hands grasp the essence of a familiar soul. He gathered it lightly into his palms, careful not to irritate the tender core of the individual. The soul, the chord of this person, was swollen, broken. Kagome could sense the veil of anguish that swathed it.  
  
Her eyes snapped open and she screamed from the pain. The vision dissolved and she struggled to regain control of her thoughts. She pressed her head to her pillow and took in sharp breaths.  
  
"Inuyasha?" she gasped.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Finally, another chapter! I apologize for the long wait in between chapters. My only defense is lack of time and a very severe case of writer's block. Anyway, thanks to all of you for your reviews. I would love to acknowledge you one by one, but I don't have the time right at this moment, but I promise I'll will soon! Please keep giving me your suggestions and your opinions. They only challenge me as a writer. Hopefully the next update will come much sooner if time and my silly mind will comply! Oh, and sorry for the cliffhangers. 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10  
  
Here is what I have promised in no particular order:  
  
Sugar06: Thank you. I'll do the best I can. Priest: Thanks for sticking in for all this craziness. And I'm afraid I don't know what Ja ne means. Wish I did. KristenSharpe: Wow my writing made you sniffle! Didn't know I could do that. San-Chan: You a writer's dream reviewer. You make me blush practically every time I read a review and half of the time you're see connections in the story that I have not. Reynamangga: Bingo! Right on. You are the first person to figure out that my pen name is after one of the nine muses. Good catch! Mattielover: I think you review almost every chapter if not every chapter! Thanks for the encouragement. Priest: I love your reviews because it makes me think about the direction my writing is going in. Thanks for the ideas you do give me. Aoi Me: Seriously considered doing the whole running away at the alter, but I got another idea. But don't think it didn't run through my mind several times. YamiYuugiloverakaKikyo: One more chapter after this and I promise its over after that. Mockingbird917: Thanks for taking this insanely long story. Ladyofthedragons: Must say that I adore your pen name. Random information I know, but it's true.  
  
Sorry if I missed anybody. I'm sure I probably did so just tell me if I forgot and I'll definitely recognize you in the next chapter.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Inuyasha?" Kagome gasped.  
  
She buried her head into her pillow and gripped the feathery mass with tense fingers. It took a moment to collect herself and will her heart to stop its spastic fluttering.  
  
Kagome sensed Inuyasha. There was no mistaking his unique soul. That boy had almost touched it, but instead chose to let it hover above his cupped hands, like he was afraid any contact would harm it.  
  
Kagome lifted her head from the pillow, trying to make some sense out of the vision and the purpose of it, but her mind felt charred from the boy's words. His mind-speak seared her mind and burned the surface of her brain, leaving only ashy remnants behind.  
  
She forced her miko powers to reach for the boy's words and intent, using her brain as the starting point. Hot shades of color flashed in front of her eyes; first red, then purple, blue, gray, and then black until it faded away leaving the outline of an angel with a large wingspan.  
  
Innis's son.  
  
Kagome stood up, walked to her window, lifted up the glass, and sat on the ledge. The night air was cool and she inhaled the scent of it. The familiar scents of home surrounded her, comforting her. She leaned her head against the wooden pane, closing her eyes and relishing the split second of peace.  
  
A crescent moon decorated the sky, smiling down at her as if it knew something that she did not. It looked like a wicked and taunting smirk.  
  
"Well, what was I supposed to do?" she asked to the yellow-white orb. "Just stay there and give up everything?" The stars twinkled around the lit grin in the sky, but it offered no answer. "He doesn't want me anyway. He just thinks he does."  
  
She sighed; at very least half believing her words even though the memory of Inuyasha's grave amber eyes were still fresh.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Everyone sat around the dinner table and waited while Shippo sat the food out. Miroku and Kaede sat at the ends of the table while Inuyasha sat across from Sango, who at the moment was trying to stop Taru from climbing on the table.  
  
"Stop squirming," Sango hissed.  
  
Taru laughed and ran around the table, away from his stern mother, and threw himself on Inuyasha's lap for sanctuary.  
  
"Yasha!" Taru squealed, throwing his arms around his neck.  
  
Usually Inuyasha was the best protection against his mother's disciplining, often giving him piggy back rides through the forest and climbing trees with him whenever Sango started her nagging. But tonight, Inuyasha acted very strangely, picking him up and setting him back down on the ground.  
  
"Go sit next to your Mom, kid." Inuyasha said gruffly. He got up from the table and walked out of the hut.  
  
Taru watched him with wide, uncomprehending eyes. His face fell and he stuck a finger in his mouth. He turned and looked to his father for an explanation. Miroku smiled with sympathy and motioned for him to come. Taru ran to his father and sat on his lap.  
  
Miroku patted his son's head, "Inuyasha is just grumpy. Don't worry about it, my boy." He wrapped his arms around Taru.  
  
"I'll tend to Inuyasha," said Kaede . "The rest of you eat."  
  
Kaede wobbled out the door of the hut and outside. Inuyasha sat on the ground with his back to the village.  
  
"Inuyasha, why does it trouble ye to be near young Taru?" Kaede's voice was cracked with age, but still held its infinite patience and wisdom.  
  
"What're you talking about, you old bat?"  
  
"Don't be cross with me, you stubborn fool. I have seen ye avoid the boy since ye and Kagome returned from the angel's mountain."  
  
Inuyasha stood up, ready to walk away from the conversation, "You're imaging things." He began walking away from her.  
  
Kaede sighed, "Perhaps, but listen if just for a moment."  
  
"What?" He snapped at her, stopping in his tracks.  
  
"I know ye always hoped Kagome would return and now she has ye think she will never come back."  
  
"I don't give a damn whether she comes back or not. He snarled at Kaede and crossed his arms, apparently astounded that the old hag could be so idiotic. "She made her choice and she can live with it."  
  
"Inuyasha, stop being so free with words you clearly do not mean."  
  
He clenched his fists and growled.  
  
"Ye've never been one to listen to reason, but listen now." Kaede walked up to him, and grabbed his hair, pulling him down to her eye level. "Whether or not Kagome returns, your will is strong. You will learn to live without her. Have ye not done it once before?"  
  
Inuyasha pulled away, "But that's when I knew she'd come back. I just felt it, but now. . ." he trailed off in thought. "She won't be back."  
  
"What makes ye so certain?"  
  
"She left didn't she?" His was becoming annoyed with the hag's endless questions.  
  
Kaede frowned, "Nothing is set in stone, Inuyasha. I cannot explain it, but I have a feeling that Kagome's business is not yet done here."  
  
Inuyasha paused to digest her words, as Kaede turned to walk back into the hut.  
  
"And in the meantime, Inuyasha, ye could try not to take your frustrations out on the rest of us." She crossed her arms behind her back and smiled, inwardly laughing at the bewildered face she was certain the hanyou wore.  
  
He watched Kaede waddle away, wishing he could allow himself to believe her words, "Kagome is gone, hag." He swallowed his next breath, realizing their full implication "Gone."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Shiro looked in the window of the bridal boutique and grinned widely. He grabbed Kagome's hand, giving it a gentle but boyish and excited squeeze.  
  
"Are you sure you won't let me see the wedding dress?" He pressed his hands up against the glass with boyish enthusiasm and practically drooled as though all the dresses and decorations were candies.  
  
"Not until the wedding." Kagome laughed at his eagerness. "It's bad luck if you see it before then!"  
  
Shiro turned his head away from the store, "I don't buy into all that superstitious stuff." He did turn around and walk towards her, "We'll make our own luck, Kagome. All I'm asking is to see my blushing bride in her wedding dress, and the wedding is still four days away. That's way too long to keep me waiting!"  
  
Kagome stretched and kissed him lightly on the mouth, "It'll be worth the wait."  
  
"Well, that was never in doubt," he smiled. "So you won't let me see it no matter how much begging I do?"  
  
Kagome grinned and shook her head playfully.  
  
"Fine, be cruel." Shiro brought his hand to his chest and gave her a wounded look.  
  
"How about I give you another kiss and we'll call it even?" Kagome offered.  
  
Shiro pretended to think it over, raising his eyes to the sky and silently mouthing his deliberation. Once he finished, he smirked, "I'll take what I can get."  
  
Kagome kissed him softly again, and took his hand to lead him away from the store. She loved when things were like this; quiet and peaceful. It brought back to mind all the times Shiro, Mariko, and she had played cards in their dorm rooms late at night or the times the trio had gone out just to walk around the town and stop in little out of the way restaurants to discuss politics, school, movies, and everything else under the sun.  
  
A small smile crossed her face as she thought about the memories of Mariko and Shiro. Shiro entwined his arm with hers and gently pulled her to his side. They walked down the sidewalk, past all the specialty shops, arm in arm. Being so near him was cozy, and it reminded her of how he protected and watched over her in little ways, always opening doors for her or giving her a backrub when she was stressed over an exam. It was so different from Inuyasha's brashness that it was almost impossible to keep from comparing the two, but Inuyasha set the standard years ago and he would always be the basis to which she compared all men.  
  
"Kagome?" Shiro began.  
  
Kagome shook her head, trying to free herself from her heavy thoughts, "Yeah?"  
  
He removed his arm from her and wrapped it around her shoulders, "I know I joke with you a lot, but I seriously want you to know how happy I am." He smiled down at her, a pair of dimples beaming. "You mean the world to me."  
  
A soft grin shaped her mouth and her eyes crinkled in satisfaction, "I know."  
  
She settled into Shiro's side and could not help but think how nice it was to have someone tell their feelings outright, to have them offer you affection so readily, to have them hold you without seeing someone else in your place. So different from Inuyasha. So completely different.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Kagome's mother looked at the pile of gifts that were piling themselves in her living room. Shiro's family, apparently intent on showing their wealth, gave the largest most exorbitantly wrapped presents.  
  
"Mrs. Higurashi, I think Kagome and Shiro aren't going to have enough room in their apartment to hold all of this stuff," Mariko commented.  
  
Kagome's mother picked up a small present and shook it lightly, "Sounds like silver the way it's clattering. I don't think my gift is going to stack up compared to all this stuff."  
  
"She's going to love whatever you get her."  
  
"Well, that's the least of my concerns. I just want the wedding to be over and all these presents gone so I can have my living room back."  
  
Kagome walked down the stairs and frowned, "More presents?"  
  
Mariko rolled her eyes, "There are worse fates."  
  
"That is true, but we're not going to have any room for all this stuff." She picked up a gift and shook it. "Sounds like some kind of crystal. Probably a vase."  
  
"What you always wanted," Mariko made a comical face, "a crystal vase!" Her tone then took a humorous slant, "But never forget that Shiro is the best present you can ever have!"  
  
"I'll be so glad when all this is over and we can just get back to school. Everything is so complicated right now. Between Shiro's family being overdramatic about everything and the stupid nightmares that have been keeping me up, you guys will have to have me committed."  
  
"Nightmares? What nightmares?" Mariko's sharp mind grabbed onto her words and she looked at her suspiciously. "Are you feeling all right, Kagome?"  
  
"I'm fine."  
  
"No, you're not. I've know you a bit too long to buy that load of bull." Mariko spoke in her usual blunt manner, not disturbed by Mrs. Higurashi's presence in the least. "Are you really okay or is this just a bad case of cold feet?" She crossed her arm and quirked an eyebrow, issuing a challenge.  
  
"I'm not having cold feet. I've just haven't been sleeping well lately." Kagome rolled her eyes, trying to convince Mariko that she was being ridiculous.  
  
"What aren't you telling me?"  
  
"There's nothing to tell." Mariko was really to smart for her own good. "Stop worrying." Kagome picked up another present and shook it. "I promise I'll go to bed early tonight and get a good night sleep."  
  
Mariko scowled at her, not believing her for one moment.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
The angel Tathan, spouse of Innis, kept a watchful eye focused directly upon his mate. She stood at the edge of the angel's mountain, staring into the heavy mist, as though she could change things by the force of her will. For days, she had stood and sulked, careful to avoid the other angels, fearful they would blame her for the girl's departure.  
  
Words of the girl's exit from this era were whispered from mind to mind, and the hope they held tightly to their hearts was dissipating and hovering in the air. The truth was that soon they would die out, and their blood, their legacy would die with them. Some looked to Innis for comfort and reassurance that there had to be some mistake, but she only regarded them with murky gray eyes and spoke no words.  
  
Tathan watched her pull her wings to her body as she shivered, "This will not do," he whispered to himself. He walked away and left her to her own musings.  
  
He walked around the white trees and thought of the prophecies, the ones that predicted that Innis and he would be the parents of the chosen child. The air was cold, and even though he was immune to such trivial matters as the weather, something frigid was gnawing at his bones. He lifted his hand and waved his wrist lightly in the cold air, a set of golden words appearing in the emptiness as his palm swept past it. The prophecies.  
  
The words emitted warmth as they engraved themselves in the air. Tathan looked up at them and examined them even though he could have recited them by heart. He squinted his eyes in concentration, looking for something he knew was not there. The aged words proclaimed what they always had; that he and Innis would give birth to the child that would unite the three races and that Innis would be the messenger to the human girl with the same calling.  
  
He accepted long ago that he and Innis were designed for one another, their minds being inextricably linked since childhood. He could still remember her messy dark hair, wide eyes, and dimpled smile from childhood. He had fought his feelings for her, determined that he would not settle for any of his kindred that he did not love, disliking the fact that it had been decided ages before his birth that he would marry her. But the truth was that he did love her. Always had.  
  
He remembered his mother's pride the day he stated his intent to unite with Innis and the warning she gave him just a breath later. She had told him that he too played a role in the future of the race, a role greater than merely being the mate of the messenger or the father of the child.  
  
"Never forget that, my son, or we may find ourselves facing extinction," she told him, cupping his cheek.  
  
Tathan never forgot, but her words confused him and he became comfortable in the knowledge that Innis was the messenger and that he was not. However, it never escaped his attention that he was bound to the hanyou in the same way Innis was connected to the girl. He may have sealed the knowledge to his own mind, keeping it from his intended mate, but he never forgot it. He loved her so greatly that he kept the knowledge secret so she would not be distracted from her own calling.  
  
Even now, he could sense the hanyou's heart sickness and it troubled him. Sure the son of demon and son of man had plenty of troubles in his life, but this was different. The pain exuding from the hanyou's soul was sharp, but there was a nauseating acceptance of it. Clearly, the hanyou felt like he wholly deserved it and gave up all hope of the girl ever returning. The girl filled the half-demon, the same way Innis did him, but now the girl was gone.  
  
Tathan frowned and swatted the words out of the air, the warmth and light disappearing, "No, this will not do at all." He turned and walked towards his dwelling, a cave just a short distance away.  
  
He entered into the darkness and walked through the blackness gracefully. He placed his hands together and a bit of light emanated from his fingers. He slowed his footsteps once he came to the place of his sleeping son.  
  
His small face was burrowed into his arms, his cheeks flushed from sleep. His son was exquisite, inheriting Tathan's brown curls and Innis's eyes, a perfect blend of the two of them.  
  
Tathan smiled softly at his son, a pride welling from within, "I know you've tried to reach the girl on your own, my son, but you're too young to reach your full potential." He placed his hands on either side of his son's head, "Let me help you."  
  
The boy's eyes snapped open and then darkened.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Kagome sat on her bed, blankets wrapped around her legs and her head resting against the headboard. She wanted to sleep, but sleep these days was not restful.  
  
The nightmares.  
  
They came every night. Some she was positive came from her inner worries, her own mind playing with her fears and second guessing her choices. But the dream of Innis's son was different. The boy had reached out for her, through time, and held Inuyasha's soul in the palm on his hand.  
  
And now, now she knew the extent of Inuyasha's pain. If ever there was something Kagome did not want to do, it would be inflicting pain on Inuyasha. She tried for so long to wipe away all his pain and now she was the one giving it to him, but the position she had been placed in was not fair. She wanted to be accepted into graduate school, be a college professor, get married, and be a mother.  
  
She wondered what the boy's aim was in showing her Inuyasha's soul and confirming that he was the angel that had been appearing to her for years. Probably trying to guilt her into coming back no doubt, but the angels seemed to be above such tactics.  
  
She leaned further into the headboard and sighed, but suddenly her room began to act rather peculiarly. Everything began to twist and spin around her, and she gripped her bed sheets. The room became gray and cloudy, and Kagome braved a glance up, fearful of what was happening.  
  
A man stood in front of her, the same outline she had seen in her dreams for years, but now there was no darkness. He was tall and his wings were of a pure ivory. Light seemed to hover around him and regarded her with a sympathetic smile and tender gray eyes.  
  
"Hello, Kagome," he smiled.  
  
Kagome tried to back up, but there was no space, no place to go. Even her bed had disappeared, but she still wore her cotton pajama pants and shirt.  
  
"Please don't be scared. I just wanted you to see me as I truly am." He held out a hand to her and lifted her up.  
  
"Innis's son."  
  
The angel nodded, "Yes. I've been visiting you like this for years." He smiled, "Trying to talk to you in your dreams."  
  
"But you never said a word. All I ever saw was your figure. You were black and everything was dark." Kagome clutched her chest, conjuring up old fears. "Why? Why did you have to scare me?" she cried.  
  
He looked remorseful, "That was never my intention. I was reaching out to you, but I'm still young. I didn't have the power to do much else."  
  
"But you're here now!"  
  
"My father is aiding me." He opened his hand and extended it to her, smiling down at her in reassurance, "There is so much I need to tell you."  
  
Kagome looked at him doubtfully, extending her hand slowly, then hesitating, and finally placing her trembling hand inside his strong one.  
  
"Kagome," he spoke softly, "do you know why I showed you Inuyasha's soul?"  
  
She shook her head side to side, numbly.  
  
"I wanted to show you his heart. You needed to know where his affections lie, but I couldn't show it to you properly, but I know his and your heart as intimately as I know my own. As intimately as I will know your daughter's heart."  
  
"How? How do you know so much?" Kagome frowned, her voice wavering.  
  
"Through my father and mother I have come to know the two of you. Mother is bound to you, and Father is bound to Inuyasha, but within me is the power to dig deeper. My own heart is reaching out for the child you will bear, but she is yet to be born. Thus, my heart stretches to the two of you."  
  
"I haven't agreed to anything," she said hotly. He presumed so much.  
  
He smiled regretfully, "You have a sight greater that most mikos, but you cannot see what is right in front of you." He brought his hand up to her cheek, "Such a fiery spirit you have."  
  
"My life is here in the modern era. I have things I care about, people I love."  
  
"Kagome." He said her voice in such a clear concerned voice that she felt compelled to bring her own hand up to the one he rested on her face.  
  
"What?"  
  
There was a smile in his eyes, "Let me show you something."  
  
The air around them ignited and flashes of color surrounded her. Once the burst of energy subsided, the angel stood before her cradling a soft light in his hands. The light kept flickering and it seemed dim. It was a sphere of amber color and it twisted slowly in his hands.  
  
Kagome stepped backwards and cocked her head in confusion, "What is that?"  
  
The angel looked down at the light, remorseful and pitying its pale color.  
  
She stepped forward and stuck one finger out as if to touch it, but the light brightened suddenly and pulsed violently. A joyful, leaping pulse. She withdrew her hand but encouraged by its palpitations she touched one finger to the sphere's surface. The color brightened and then cooled a bit at her touch. It calmed and seemed content.  
  
Something brutal struck her as her finger skimmed the light's surface. Kagome pulled her finger back quickly, fearful of her sudden revelation.  
  
"Inuyasha?" she said heavily.  
  
"Not quite," the angel spoke. "It's his spirit, his heart."  
  
Kagome shut her eyes and felt her miko powers expand, opening up and channeling itself in a way that had not been done since the final battle with Naraku. She could feel the rhythms of the light, its subtle signature.  
  
She looked up and tears shone in her eyes, "He's hurting."  
  
"But you already knew this."  
  
"I know," she paused thinking for a moment. "But I could touch it this time. It felt like it came from me."  
  
"As it always does when two hearts are paired." He looked at her somberly, "But what you need to see is not done. I apologize for what I am about to do. It will hurt."  
  
Kagome felt a force from within her stir. It was as though it were being suctioned from her chest. She could hear a scream, or more precisely an echo of a scream, but the pain was too intense to recognize it as her own. Just as quickly, the pain abated and she looked to see another sphere of light, a soft indigo shade hovering outside of her body.  
  
She watched it quiver towards the amber light and then spin around it for one moment. The spheres revolved slowly around one another, twisting and occasionally touching one another's exterior. Kagome felt empty watching it, aware that it was her own spirit dancing in front of her. In an instant, the spheres melded together, slowly melting into one another.  
  
Once the two spheres blended together, nothing existed outside of the spheres. All Kagome could see was the light; not even the angel was present. The two lights became one, emitting a single beat.  
  
And then she understood.  
  
She could see Inuyasha's spirit as clearly as her own, and it all made perfect sense. Inuyasha loved Kikyo and still did, but now things had changed. His love for her was present, but it was a memory, something stored away and cherished. But the intensity of his emotion and the portion of his heart reserved for her was nearly suffocating.  
  
The startling part was that her spirit resonated the same sensation.  
  
The spheres separated and one disappeared while the other returned to Kagome's chest, beating wildly. Her hand touched the place where the spirit reentered as though she were trying to experience the emotions again. Everything she ever felt for Inuyasha bubbled up, free from all the binds she had placed on them.  
  
Kagome opened her eyes. Her surroundings were gray again and the angel was near her, studying her.  
  
"You consume him."  
  
She tried to nod but the full extent of what she had felt seized her, and she began to quiver, her lips trembling fiercely. Tears fell and the angel put his strong arms around her back, pressing her to him. Kagome buried her face into his chest, letting him comfort her.  
  
He pulled her away and held her at arms length, "Do you understand now? Inuyasha loved Kikyo, but his world was small then. You were the one that opened him, made him see things differently." He looked her directly in the eye, staring directly into her, "You taught him what it meant to love. Don't you see, Kagome? You showed him how."  
  
"But what about my life here?" Kagome swung her arm to the side like the gray haze was still her bedroom. "What about Shiro? I'm supposed to be getting married in three days."  
  
"You are exceptionally powerful even for a miko. Did my Mother not explain to you that you can travel through the well at your own will?"  
  
She shook her head in remembrance, looking puzzled, "I can come and go through time as I please?"  
  
"It does not work quite like that, but if there is a real need for you to travel to your own time then you'll have the capability. You'll know when the time is appropriate."  
  
"And what about Shiro? I have feelings for him."  
  
"I can feel the care you have for him, but it is not the same as your feelings for Inuyasha."  
  
Kagome bit her lip, "What am I supposed to do?" Forgetting all the moments she and Shiro shared would not be easy. He reached into a part of her that few people had since she left the feudal era. "I don't want to hurt him."  
  
"There is one close to you that will heal his heart. One that already is overflowing with care for him."  
  
Kagome frowned, "But who?"  
  
He laughed, "You are such a child, Kagome. Those matters will take care of themselves. Do not worry about Shiro. I promise you he shall be fine."  
  
Kagome narrowed her eyes and angled her head, amazed at how quickly everything that seemed so complicated straightened itself out, "And it's all that simple?" It was all dizzying, almost impossible to believe that she and Inuyasha could be together.  
  
"Your hearts are compatible. You are his fit. It's that simple."  
  
Her lips stretched into a slow smile, "Thank you." She touched his hand, wrapping her fingers around his, squeezing them delicately.  
  
He wrapped his hands around her fingers and gave her a boyish grin, "I must leave you now, but we will meet again."  
  
"When?"  
  
"In time, Kagome, in time." He form became thinner and thinner until he was no longer there, and the grayness dispersed. Kagome found herself back on her bed.  
  
Kagome jumped up, seized by an electric energy. She threw open the door of her bedroom and ran downstairs, "Mom, we need to talk!"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Inuyasha lifted his head from the tree branch. He clutched his chest, breathing heavy gulping bursts of air. Something had been ripped from inside of him and it burned with an acidic fury. But then, it stopped and he could feel such peace as something merged with it. Something soft and magnificent, something with incredible familiarity.  
  
"Kagome?"  
  
For a split second, he could feel her and thought he could reach out to find her reaching back, but then he was slammed with a returning force. She was out of his reach, but that did not stop the shaking hand from stretching out into the darkness and her name from being screamed into the twilight.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
That chapter was a long time in coming. Sorry everyone for the long wait, but it's the end of the semester and crunch time. Plus, this story has a will of its own and all of the things I think are going to end up on paper just don't seem to fit. The angels' tale keeps popping up out of nowhere and demands to be written. But anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the story because it you aren't then this is all pointless. And if you do not mind review because I always read them for encouragement while I write and as always thank you to all of my amazing reviewers. 


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11  
**  
_Such wilt thou be to me, who must,  
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;  
Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun  
John Donne, "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning"  
_  
_He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;  
W.H. Auden, "Funeral Blues"_

_  
  
_  
Everything seemed to be gray. The clouds, the rain, the puddles on the ground, even Kagome's own mood was colorless. She made a point not to avoid any of the puddles in the sidewalk, allowing the rainwater to seep up her pant legs and soak through her tennis shoes. The thick fog clung to her jacket and heavy rain dripped off of her. She was miserable and she knew this is what she deserved, some slight atonement for what she had done.  
  
Kagome knew that jilting someone before a wedding could hardly be considered good etiquette, but now she knew it was a terrible thing, nothing at all like romance novels. There was nothing romantic or epic about the look on Shiro's face while she fumbled with the lame excuse she made-up. He was shocked, and then unbelieving, then angry, and then horribly upset.  
  
Shiro had paced around the room, looking wild. He looked so close to tears, and he had begged, pleaded with her to change her mind, even offering to delay the wedding until she was ready.  
  
_"I'll wait until your ready. You can finish school and do whatever you want." Shiro placed his hand on her shoulder and caressed it softly.  
  
"I'm not going back to school. I just need to go away."  
  
Shiro pulled her to him and whispered in her ear, "Kagome, I love you. You know that." He tightened the embrace, "I'll make you happy. I promise."  
_  
She had pulled away with eyes full of tears, scrunched her eyes, bit her lower lip, and shook her head no, and then Shiro did cry. She sat on his couch and watched him. It was unfair that he had planted all his hopes and future in her only to have them snatched away. It was so unfair and all he could do in response was cry. Kagome reached for him, resting her hand on his bicep, but he asked her to leave and all she could do was just that. She managed to croak out an apology before shutting the door and stepping into the rain, feeling so much remorse that she wondered if it would drip off of her like the rain.

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Mariko shook her head in disbelief. Things like demons, angels, and wells that spirited people hundreds of years into the past did not exist, but Kagome had spent all night retelling stories of the Sengoku Jidai. Kagome recalled the story of Inuyasha, Kikyo, Naraku, and the sacred jewel, finishing off by telling her own part in the story as a reincarnated priestess. Then, the most recent affair involving angels, a journey, a half demon, and a child yet unborn was recounted.  
  
At first, Mariko had wanted to call the nearest psychiatric hospital to have a sopping wet Kagome committed, but there were photographs. There was a photo of a smiling male with a roguish air about him and another of a young something that had a tail attached to his backside. Next, there was the photo of the flying tiger, cat, or some sort of feline that had fire coming from its paws with a pretty woman wearing battle attire and a hulking boomerang on her back. Finally, Kagome produced a picture of a white haired boy with ears coming out of his head that looked at though he were yelling at whomever it was that took the picture.  
  
"That's Inuyasha," Kagome said softly, pointing at the photograph.  
  
Mariko took the picture and studied it. So, this was the boy that Kagome had been in love with, the one she had mysteriously hinted about a handful of times but would never elaborate on. He certainly didn't look agreeable, but there was something in those amber eyes of his.  
  
Mariko frowned, "This picture is real? It's not a fake?"  
  
"No, it's not a fake."  
  
"Kagome, are you going crazy or am I?" Mariko responded weakly rubbing the back of her neck.  
  
Kagome gave a half-hearted, rueful smile, "I am crazy." Then she paused and took a deep breath, "Or my life is crazy. I'm not sure which."  
  
Mariko went the mini kitchen of her hotel room and got a glass of water. She returned to the room and handed it to Kagome, wondering what words or enlightening advice she should come up with next.  
  
Instead, she plopped back on the couch, "So what are you going to do?"  
  
"Go back."  
  
"Go back?" Mariko's mouth stretched thin. "What do you mean go back? What about Shiro? You're supposed to be getting married."  
  
Kagome's hand began to shake and the water in the glass began to ripple. There was a second that Kagome felt sure she would drop her glass. She set in on the coffee table quickly, almost tipping it over.  
  
"I talked to Shiro before I came here. The wedding is off."  
  
Mariko sighed, "And how did he take it?"  
  
"Not well." Kagome swallowed the lump in the back of her throat.  
  
"Honestly, Kagome! What did you thing he was going to do? Smile at you, pat you on the back, and then wish you good luck."  
  
Mariko wanted nothing more than to haul Kagome over the coals for what she had done. She had watched her two best friends fall in love and spent the past year as a third wheel, tagging along with them. The trio of them did homework together, spent weekend nights on the town, spent weekdays in the library, and watched movies in one another's dorm rooms, all the time becoming more intrinsically tied together. Mariko knew that Kagome and Shiro's marriage would change their friendship, but the two of them were happy and she could never begrudge them that. She knew the two of them had been happy, but now Kagome looked miserable and she was positive Shiro was across town in his apartment either throwing things against the walls or swearing while chasing down a bottle of tequila. Shiro had a long fuse and seldom got angry, but even he had limits.  
  
It was all too much to absorb and process. She wanted to be angry with Kagome for leaving Shiro and leaving her for a boy and for people that lived five hundred years in the past. She wanted to go find Shiro and comfort him, let him know that Kagome was not the only one who cared for him, but Kagome was the one sitting in front of her, looking like her world had gone to pieces.  
  
"I never wanted to hurt him," Kagome fumbled. "I love him, I really do Mariko, but I don't belong with him anymore. If I could stay I would," Kagome paused, "but I can't."  
  
"So you're definitely going?"  
  
"Yeah," Kagome whispered, a tear weaving its way down her cheek.  
  
Mariko found herself beginning to tear up, "And you won't change your mind even if I lecture you to death?"  
  
Kagome shook her head.  
  
"You know, I should think you're crazy."  
  
"You don't?"  
  
"No. It's not like to make up stories."  
  
"And you're not angry with me?" Kagome's eyebrows shot up in surprise.  
  
"The jury is still out on that one." Mariko smiled lightly, "Let's go get something to eat. It's almost dawn, close enough to call it breakfast time."  
  
"That sounds great." Kagome stood up from the couch and grabbed her wet coat up from the floor. "Maybe we can stop by my house so I can change clothes."  
  
"Alright. Let's get out of here." Mariko got up from the couch and walked towards the door.  
  
"How about one of those little diners that serves a greasy home cooked meal?"  
  
Mariko grinned, "Perfect."  
  
Before they left Kagome something Innis's son told her the night before repeated in her brain. There is one whose heart is overflowing with care for him. She grabbed Mariko by the arm, "Mariko, will you do me a favor?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"You will watch out for Shiro won't you? I wouldn't trust anyone else to do it but you."  
  
Something in Mariko's face changed, whether it was surprise or the release of something that she had not allowed herself to feel much less interpret. She gave Kagome a confused smile and answered like her question had been the most practical thing on earth, "Of course."  
  
"Good," Kagome beamed. "I had a feeling you wouldn't mind."  
  
The two of them walked out the door, content with the knowledge that the two of them still had a few hours to laugh together, recall the best times of their friendship, and had time to say goodbye.

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Kagome adjusted her sheer top, trying to get it to settle on the perfect place on her slender shoulders. She was wearing a pair of khaki capri slacks and a light beige camisole with a sheer blue peasant top over it. The light blue top fit snug around her chest and flared slightly around the waist, accenting her lean torso. She knew it was ridiculous to try and dress up for Inuyasha, he couldn't give a flip about what she wore or what was fashionable in her time, but still she wanted to look nice for him.  
  
She looked over to the two suitcases she packed, full of necessities that she knew she would need. Living in the past was not a sacrifice provided Inuyasha was by her side, but certain amenities like a toothbrush, shampoo, deodorant, some change of clothing, tennis shoes, and some light medical supplies were too good to give up completely. Besides, she did not know how long it would be before she could travel back to the present.  
  
"I look fine. Everything is going to be fine."  
  
She tried to smooth a stubborn wrinkle out of her pants, a silly gesture that was aimed more at trying to soothe her nerves. When she left the past, there had been a very angry hanyou screaming behind her. Knowing Inuyasha as well as she did meant that she knew just reappearing and asking to stay might not go over as smoothly as hoped.  
  
Kagome sighed and grabbed her luggage, "It's now or never."  
  
She kissed her mother and Souta goodbye, promising to come and see them as soon as she could, but she only made it halfway out the door before she turned around and flung her arms around both of them even though the long farewells had been made the night before.  
  
"Kagome, I want to know how proud I am of you, how proud you Father would have been of you."  
  
Kagome smiled weakly, "Thanks, Mom." She hugged her mother tighter. There would never be anyone as supportive or loving as her mother. She then stepped away and ruffled the hair on Souta's head, "So long, Kid Brother."  
  
He swiped her hand away, "Bye, Big Sis." He then rubbed his neck in embarrassment as Kagome embraced him. "Don't stay away too long okay."  
  
The two of them escorted her to the well and watched her toss her suitcases into the well.  
  
"I'll see both of you as soon as I can," Kagome promised, an anxious look across her face.  
  
They waved goodbye a final time and watched as Kagome heaved herself over the edge of the well and disappeared into its depths. A flash of light came and then it was quiet. Souta and his mother walked out of the shrine and back to their own home, the pang of watching a loved one leave heavy on their shoulders.

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Kagome walked slowly towards the village. She was anxious and unsure whether Inuyasha would be there or not, but it was a good place to start. Even if he wasn't in the village, with that keen sense of smell of his it was unlikely that it would be too long before Inuyasha found her. She dragged her luggage behind her while trying to work out what she could say to him in her head.  
  
"I want to stay here with you, Inuyasha. I'm not getting married and I want to be with you, Inuyasha." Kagome stopped walking and concentrated, "I just needed some time to sort out my thoughts and now I'm back. No, that's stupid! I belong here with you, Inuyasha. Will you marry me?" She smacked her forehead, "Idiot!"  
  
She kept walking and muttering different variations of the same plea under her breath until she caught sight of Inuyasha's favorite tree. Sitting on one of the lower branches was Inuyasha, lazily resting against the trunk of the tree. It looked as though his eyes were shut, his thinking face, trying to ignore the rest of the world.  
  
Kagome let her luggage go and tried pointlessly to press down the squishy feeling in her stomach. Logic told her that it was just her nerve ends tingling, preparing to enter the fight or flight mode. The flight mode seemed tempting, but knowing Inuyasha it was the fight she should be preparing for. She approached the tree softly, as though she were trying not to wake him, and mentally berated herself for being so stupid.  
  
"Inuyasha?" she whispered.  
  
He didn't move am inch.  
  
"Inuyasha?" she tried a second time.  
  
He didn't flinch, not one sign of movement or life. She frowned for a moment, confused. He had to have heard her coming or at the very least known she had stepped out of the well just by her smell, which meant he was ignoring her. _That stupid jerk_, she seethed.  
  
"Inuyasha!" she said a third time, her voice increasing in volume and her fist punching the trunk of the tree as though the vibration of a thump would make him answer.  
  
"Come to invite me to the wedding?" He didn't open his eyes and his tone seemed bored with her and her interruption.  
  
"No, I didn't." She tried to push her anger down, but it was a useless attempt. "I came back because there's something I need to tell you."  
  
"Well, you better hurry. I'm sure _Shiro_ is waiting on you. Don't want to miss the big wedding!" He finally opened his eyes and gave her a patronizing look. "Go back to your own time, Kagome."  
  
Kagome took a deep breath and counted to ten backwards, holding back the biting comment that she felt only slightly sure at the moment that she might regret later, "I'm not going back home. I'm staying here."  
  
"Well what in the hell do you want to stay here for?"  
  
The look on his face could have withered anyone with less determination but Kagome was only annoyed by it, "I thought maybe we could talk. Talk, Inuyasha, not argue!"  
  
"I'm not in the mood." He closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and returned to his thinker pose.  
  
"Fine! Then I'll talk! You listen!" Kagome unclenched her teeth and then groaned, "I came back to ask if you'll let me stay. I want to be here with you and I'd like it if you would say that maybe you wanted me to stay too."  
  
Inuyasha was prepared to rattle off another loud-mouthed response, but her blunt honesty made him hesitate. Hesitate for precisely nine and a half seconds before retorting.  
  
"Don't hold your breath."  
  
Kagome's mouth dropped open and her face flushed, a violent angry shade of red, "You stupid ass! I came here to talk, hoping that you might do the same, but clearly that's beyond your capabilities!"  
  
"Shut up!" Inuyasha opened his eyes, gave her his nastiest look, clenched his fist, and the shook it threateningly at her.  
  
"I will if you quit being such so thick-headed! Use that rock you have for a brain for two seconds and just listen to what I have to say!"  
  
Inuyasha was appalled, "Rock for a brain, thick-headed!"  
  
"Well, who would ever have thought it? He does have power in his brain to listen!" Kagome clung to the trunk of the tree, looking upwards and yelling.  
  
"Care to repeat that?" His eyes narrowed into two slits as he offered her one last chance for mercy.  
  
Kagome shook from her anger, and the impulse to sit him into oblivion hung on the end of her tongue, but then an infinitely more appealing idea popped into her brain. Since words apparently weren't going to faze Inuyasha, a different approach would have to do. Kagome kicked off her heels and began to climb the tree. It was something she had not done in years, but apparently the old adage about never forgetting how to ride a bike applied to tree climbing as well.  
  
"What in the hell are you doing?" Inuyasha scowled, trying to keep the sliver of worry out of his voice.  
  
"What does it look like?" she grunted in between branches.  
  
"Looks like you're trying to get yourself killed."  
  
Kagome finally pulled herself up to the branch Inuyasha sat on and threw her leg over it. She straddled the branch, bracing herself to get her balance, and then gave Inuyasha a pointed stare.  
  
"What're doing?" he growled.  
  
She didn't answer but instead scooted a little closer to him until she was just a few inches from him. Kagome looked him square in the eye and smiled softly. Warning bells sounded in Inuyasha's mind and that impish glint in her eyes didn't escape his attention. He inched away from her until his back hit the tree trunk, offering no sanctuary.  
  
"Kagome, what are you doing?" His voice cracked several times while trying to force out the words. "Whatever it is I don't like it. Stop." The last command was a mere squeak.  
  
In response, Kagome placed her fingertips on Inuyasha's cheeks. Her hands were cold, and they felt cool on his warm, flushing skin. Inuyasha's eyes expanded in fear and he tried once again to scoot back. Kagome tilted her head to the side a bit and let her eyes follow the line of his face, down then up, before gently brushing her lips against his.  
  
Inuyasha froze. The pressure of her lips against his lasted for only a second, but it was enough to silence the hanyou. He was vaguely aware of the scent of lavender coming from somewhere, but that was all his mind could comprehend for the moment. Her closeness turned his insides into liquid and the tree did not seem to be very sturdy. He took a breath as she backed away, still not blinking his wide eyes, and tried to make some sense of what had just transpired. The only thing his mind could recognize was that the experience was pleasant. It was most definitely pleasant and entirely intoxicating.  
  
Kagome watched him with tender eyes, somehow touched by his incomprehension. She waited for him to snap back, her brown eyes studying his every facial response.  
  
"Inuyasha?" she whispered.  
  
Inuyasha blinked but could not seem to organize any words into a coherent pattern.  
  
"Will you listen now?" All the impishness and mischievousness that had been her catalyst were gone. They were replaced with insecurity and hesitation.  
  
He nodded lightly and moved his hand to her cheek, trying to focus on those large brown eyes that were so centered upon him.  
  
"I've done some thinking." She moved her hand up to the hand that rested on her cheek and then held it within her own. "It's been so long since we've really talked and we've both changed. I think we need some time to get to know each other again, that is if you want to."  
  
Inuyasha nodded, overcome with the emotion that was welling up, "I'd like that."  
  
"With Sango having her baby soon, I figured that Miroku would be staying home more often and that would leave you without a partner to patrol around with. I could travel with you if you'd like. I'm still good with a bow and arrow, and I still have my miko powers. It could be just like the old days."  
  
For a second Inuyasha frowned with old self-doubt, "Are you sure? What about your wedding and school?"  
  
Kagome took Inuyasha's hand and brought it to her mouth, kissing his palm lightly before embracing both of his hands in hers, "I belong here with you and you belong with me." She beamed a full, open, bright smile, "We just fit."  
  
Inuyasha moved towards her and rested his forehead against hers, swallowing deeply and nodding in agreement, "You . . . .you know what you mean to me? Right?"  
  
His words were blundered, but Kagome understood. She grinned and Inuyasha tucked some of Kagome's dark hair behind her ears. He moved to return her kiss rather clumsily. At contact, a vivid picture drizzled into their minds; a little girl with amber eyes and velvety silver hair that smiled at them as though everything were right in the world.

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Sango held a small girl within her arms, smiling at her newborn child, "I told you it was a girl Miroku!" Her face was ragged and tired, but there was a light in her eyes.  
  
"What's her name, Sango?" Shippo asked.  
  
"Amiri," Miroku replied with a grin, "That's the name Sango chose for her. We had a little wager going. If my beautiful wife was correct and the baby was a girl she could choose the name of the child." He gave Sango a lecherous grin, looking as though there was no greater turn on than losing a battle to his wife, "Clearly I was in the wrong."  
  
"Isn't she beautiful, Inuyasha?" Kagome sighed while admiring the little red bundle.  
  
"Keh. It's just a baby." He looked at the newborn with distaste. Birthing children was such a messy affair with lots of blood, pain, screaming, and trouble for all the efforts.  
  
Kagome frowned, "Are you going to act this way when we get married and have our kids?"  
  
It was Inuyasha's intention to return her question with a biting response, but the fact that the word when was applied to their marriage rather than will we warmed him, "That's different."  
  
"Oh really!" Kagome rolled her eyes. "And just out of curiosity what do you want to name our little girl when she comes along?"  
  
"Does it really matter?" he asked in complete surprise and earnestness.  
  
Kagome swatted his arm hard, "Of course it matters! You can't just name a baby anything. A name has to have meaning!"  
  
"Well, what would you name her?"  
  
"I've always liked the name Hana," she looked at him expectantly waiting for a response.  
  
He looked over at Miroku and Sango. Miroku was kneeling by Sango smiling down at her with Taru in his arms while Sango was looking at him with contentment. Shippo and Kaede were there too, looking thrilled beyond words. Their happiness seemed to him to be a promise or a foretelling of what he could expect to have in the near future.  
  
"I like the sound of that," he replied gently, wrapping an arm around Kagome's waist and moving her hair out of his way to press a kiss on her temple.  
  
Many miles away, a gray eyed angel smiled at her husband and reached for his hand. He offered it to her and then squeezed her own. He cradled his child closer to his chest and opened his mind to begin a dialogue with his wife. The two of them walked away with their wings brushing, leaving the group to their own privacy.

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I know it's been a million years since I've updated, but my only excuse is that grad school has totally consumed me whole, eating up all of my life and time before it decides to spit me back out. I tried to hurry and finish this before I got shipped halfway across the country to do an internship at a hospital and I can only hope the story didn't suffer as result. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews and the encouragement. You guys are why I stuck with this story even after hours of frustration and writer's block, and not to get all mushy on you but you guys really do rock beyond all belief. Well, hope you enjoyed it and just to finish off with a silly quote that a friend of mine used to say, "See you later, old chum."


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